Everyone's Opinion Newsletter

The primary election is over and voter turnout in Blair County was 15%, the lowest poll workers have seen in years as reported in a May 20th, 2009 Altoona Mirror article entitled: Voter turnout lower than usual across region. This article also quoted Republican clerk Donna Shultz, who evidently was upset by the dismal turnout and who chastised the voters that did not vote with a warning that, those stay-at-homes will have no justification for complaining if the winners of these school board elections decide to raise taxes on those who did not vote.

As per the same Mirror article a similar attitude was echoed from Clearfield County’s Elections Director, Linda Clark, who said, “If you’re not going to speak your voice, shame on you.” While these remarks indicate that both women were up-set, their remarks also indicate a flippant attitude that is naïve or arrogant, and that somehow the 80% to 85% of citizens who didn’t vote were guilty of doing something wrong. Let’s consider what’s really wrong.

Consider: School board candidates are allowed to run for a two year term and a four year term, in essence they are running for two elected positions.

Consider: The winner of a four year term and two year term is allowed to choose which term they wish to hold and then the school board at their discretion after the elections are over, fills the other vacant position, which takes the decision out of the voters’ hands. This same scenario occurred in a past Logan township supervisor’s race.

Consider: Third party voters are barred from participating in primary elections while on the other hand school board candidates are permitted to cross-file with the two major parties. This hypocritical travesty is an exercise in political cross-dressing that is definitely strange.

Consider: Our state representatives are limited to a two year term, these school board members should also be limited to a two year term and maybe it would be better to reduce their terms to one year given their propensity to thumb their noses at the electorates’ will and do great damage with their unconscionable spending habits to the detriment of our property taxes; or,

Consider: Since these school board elections are used more as an electoral sham to endorse the administrative law which governs these school districts rather than the representative will of the people than maybe it wouldbe better to eliminate this electoral travesty completely and replace their function with another layer of bureaucracy.

Consider: The Mirror published interviews with candidates for the township supervisors’ races but conveniently neglected any interviews with candidates running for the school board races. Why? Could this be one of those don’t ask, don’t tell situations so that a candidate’s position on reassessment could not be asked or committed to a printed public format? Due to the scarcity of information, how could any voter in clear conscience cast an informed vote unless they were privy to the parties’ inter-circle cabal?

Consider: Due to the fact these devious electoral tactics havebeen legally enshrined in administrative election law, one would have to ask themselves, is the real cabal within the bar associations?

A little over three years ago our family lost a dear four-legged friend, the family dog. When she first arrived she was about eight weeks old and of course one of the first orders of business was to train her where to do her business. Those that have had dogs know the routine, first we started with a newspaper inside then graduated to timely intervals outdoors. When mishaps occurred different forms of coercion were applied, the ultimate being the threat of or a swat across the butt with a folded newspaper, the Altoona Mirror of course.

She learned quickly but occasionally mishaps occurred. On these occasions, my wife who was the major disciplinarian would scold with the Altoona Mirror in hand than say “What did you do!”  The dog would acknowledge the wrong by lowering her head and cower off to her bed and patiently wait for a sign of forgiveness.

As she matured to the late stages of puppy life her mischief focused on different things, from dragging pillows off the couch to dragging throw rugs in a tug of war when nobody was around. The most humorous and the messiest antic was when she got hold of the end of a full roll of toilet paper and dragged it thru the house tearing it to shreds in the process. For all ofthese infractions the routine phrase was, what did you do? It seemed that chastisement by this phrase was more threatening than any ten swats from the Altoona Mirror.

Our kids came to recognize how incriminated she would react to this phrase and used it to torment, sometimes to the point of being cruel. One evening we were at the kitchen table eating supper and the dog was waiting for her portion. After waiting for what she thought was a reasonable amount oftime, she became impatient and began to pester one of our sons for recognition and her portion. Becoming a little aggravated with her pestering he evoked that terrible phrase, what did you do, in order to incriminate and intimidate her. She instinctively began to cower and sulk then got a bewildered look for a moment, then reared up in protest with a staunch grow and loud bark so as to say, I didn’t do anything wrong! The phrase no longer had any meaning except when justly used.

It seems man’s best four legged friend has been blessed with acertain amount of common sense also. And for these people to criticize and for the Mirror to repeat these hollow incriminations toward 80% to 85% of the electorate that did not vote is to consider us dumber than our dogs. At these kinds of percentages, this is a vote of no confidence; a super majority has shunned the process. By right and fair play this election should be called null and void, and rescheduled.

Granted this is an off year primary election but if these kinds of percentages carry through to the general election along with these devious tactics in place, this State Government will no longer be able to lead by crisis but will be governed by a crisis. We the people are tired of being treated like dogs, we deserve better too. It appears the people have spoken and “it’s not shame on us, but shame on you” for allowing this situation to get to this point. It’s long past time for real reform. 

The Freeman

BlairCounty

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