WE are just four weeks out from the local elections on June 7, and you, my dutiful reader, have the power at your fingertips to make the real change you want to see at local level for the next five years.
It’s one thing sitting behind your keyboard all day putting the world to rights, with the answers for everything and taking pot shots at local representatives, it’s quite another to put your civic duty where your mouth is.
There’s a couple of auld head-the-balls out there that are quick to smear their bile all over everything — good, bad or indifferent – on social media, with never a kind word for anyone. Some of these nasty trolls are so hard at it that you’d swear they had no jobs, lives, or hot showers to be going to.
If they really do know it all, I hope we see a couple more of these smart boys and girls getting their names on a ballot before the May 18 closing date, the clock is ticking.
Stick your head above the parapet, if you want to make positive changes for your communities. Our councillors, each and every one of them, are brave enough to, day in and day out, sacrifice work, home, and social commitments to work for those in their electoral areas.
Councillors are an easy target, and sure, I take pot shots at them often enough, but it is all meant in the best possible taste (I promise). I have the highest regard for our 40 elected representatives and the work they do.
So, you Mr Keyboard Warrior, if things aren’t to your liking, come out from behind your computer screen and be the change you want to see. If you think you can do a better job, stop the yapping, get out there, and make a difference – though, whatever you do, don’t be pointing at potholes or lampposts, that’s a big no-no.
Politics, at the end of the day, is about people and communities, changing lives for the better, but it has become a very dirty game.
Vile diatribes aimed online at councillors, or indeed anyone else, is a reflection on you and not on the one you claim to be offended by. Get up off the comfy chair and see how you like them apples when the mud is thrown in your general election… I mean direction.
Things can get real Machiavellian out on the campaign trail as the local election nears, and look, that’s par for the course. All is fair in love and war, but we do hope for a clean fight.
But, if you, dear reader, are not happy with one political party or another, make sure you are registered to vote and let your voice be heard loud and clear at the polls on June 7. Things have gotten really ugly on the political landscape in recent times and we have forgotten our manners and common decency with it.
We live in a democracy. If you are not happy with the policy-making at local authority level then use your vote or get up off your backside and run.
