While some may resort to tactics from the seemier side of politics to inhibit open political discussions here on the MCS website, we shouldn't let things like multiple-blog-topic hijack attempts succeed in deterring our exchanges about the issues facing Clay County residents in 2008.
Voters shouldn't forget, and we shouldn't be prohibited from debating, the many separate issues that combine to present local voters with an extraordinary opportunity to make extraordinary change in their government. This year, voters will likely decide:
If they want one unopposed candidate to serve as chairman of the County Commission for four consecutive years;
Whether they want five or seven people serving on the County Commission;
How much they want to pay those County Commissioners:
How they want those County Commissioners to receive future pay raises;
What percentage of voters it should take to successfully amend the county's Home Rule Charter;
If one special circumstance - eliminating an elected position - should require a higher percentage to pass than any other type of Charter Amendment.
That's in addition to determing who becomes:
Sheriff;
Clerk of the Court;
Property Appraiser:
Supervisor of Elections;
School Superintendent;
Two-fifths of the School Board; and
Three-fifths, or potentially five-sevenths, of the County Commission.
This website greatest asset is its ability to gather. There is no other place where Clay County residents to come together and discuss the important issues of their day. There is a place for blogs of other issues, but grouping them together in order to divert attention from the discussion of real issues facing real everyday people and their real tax bills is wasting MCS's highest potential, and disrectful to the website, its users and its readers.
This is an extraordinary year for Clay County voters. We can't afford to waste this incredible communication tool because of one or two people's blatant, offensively-manipulative, petty political schemes to stop the discussions on the real choices local voters face this year.
Michael S. Mann
michaelsmann@comcast.net [1]
Sign petition for 5/2 choice: http://24.23.126.8/ [2]