I want to remind readers that voting counts. Neither party, D or R, has a majority of the voters. It takes Independent and other party voters to give any party a majority. I would like to see better candidates than what will probably presented in November, but a choice needs to be made. We will have a snake oil salesman/con man and a very old and ineffective leader to pick from. Both seem to have issues and are only 4 years difference in age, heck I am younger than both by a few years and I would not feel competent enough to be president.
5 November 2020
This is the first entry in my modified blog/webpage. I have decided to stop attending meetings for the most part. Covid19 has put a glitch into the everyday face to face meetings I had attended previously and Zoom meetings seem to be very restrictive as to how the public is involved. My plan is to update this page every so often with my point of view on various subjects. I hope to keep up with local goings on, mainly by reading meeting minutes or viewing BKAT videos.
Part of why I am backing away from continuing my public involvement is the election results. I had hoped for change but at many levels change did not happen. It may be the future legislative redistricting may change how things are in Kitsap County, but I doubt it. Frankly when I see at many levels the quality of the candidates I have to wonder about the direction we are taking. We have over 328,000,000 in the USA and 7,600,000 in Washington State and this is the best we can come up with for candidates at many levels. That is scary in many ways. I will emphasize that I am not Republican or Democrat, I am an Independent voter who looks for the best person for the office, not a political poppinjay or parrot of political beliefs. Neither of the major parties have all the answers, heck neither one at times seems to even understand the questions. As for the smaller political parties, it usually is more of the same of the "my way or the highway' style of political posturing. So yes, basically I am tired of years of the same old bullshit from all sides.
The general public is not much better, they seem at times to bask in the glory of ignorance and misinformation. Instead of getting involved and actually getting their hands dirty learning and educating themselves on the issues most seem to use the internet exclusively to form their opinions. If Bill from Billings says on Facebook that a candidate is from Mars, then that becomes the mantra. Locally people act surprised when local politicians discuss something they do not agree with and act even more surprised when it happens. The fact it was discussed at previous public meetings, voted on at a public meeting and may have eventually had a newspaper article written about it is immaterial. No one came to their door or called them to tell them personally something that will affect them is happening. Oh, the horror of not being told personally. We have a tendency to forget who the elected officials actually work for, they work for all of us regardless of party affiliations. It is up to us to ensure they do not forget that and that takes work and involvement on our part.
Yes it is hard to be informed, I know, I spent the last four years going to hundreds of hours of meetings and talking one on one with many community leaders. I will stay informed, I will still research the issues and I still have the elected officials on my list of people I e-mail or phone call to discuss the issues. I hope they know that I am willing to listen to their ideas and give my feedback and I hope they listen to my concerns.
Kitsap County is changing and changing much more rapidly than many people expected. That will not change, in fact it may increase in speed in the next few years even with the economic recovery from Covid19 that is on the horizon. How we in Kitsap County change to meet the future will be interesting. I expect Silverdale will be incorporated in the next 5 years with Kingston following in the next 10-15 years. That will greatly change the dynamics in Kitsap County and have a huge affect on unincorporated Kitsap County and the services they receive.
Hopefully I will discuss this in this blog in the next few years and I hope to keep you informed a little bit. I leave many of the details to you to hopefully get you more involved with our community, the county, the state and our country.