Congratulations Mayor!11-06-13-pub-notes.gif

Well, Fayetteville finally has a new mayor, new council members and hopefully a new energetic direction. Again, congratulations to all. Your hard work and dedication has paid off!

For the sake of full disclosure, since this column was written last Friday, before the election, I had no idea who the winners would be. But, I do know this, Fayetteville has gotten exactly what it deserves. Good, bad or indifferent.

It doesn’t make any difference whether you are rich, poor, Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, black, white, Hispanic or Asian, if you live within the city limits, it is what it is.

The future of Fayetteville now lies in the hands of this new council. Hopefully, it will be well-balanced, dedicated, effective and sensitive to the needs of its citizens and capable of leading us forward into a bright and prosperous future. Hey, if this doesn’t happen, well, like I’ve already said, we’ve gotten exactly what we deserve.

At the very least, we will no longer be subject to those newspaper accounts of how helpful, wonderful and effective all of the those pre-election candidate forums were. Ugh. Truth. They were horrid, just horrid. Every one lacking in form, thought-provoking insights and questions that would render candidate responses that would have provided voters insight into a candidate’s talents, capabilities and sensitivities. Unfortunately, we got nothing of the sort.

No tough questions.

No detailed answers.

No rebuttal.

No one-on-one interaction.

What we got was just a lot of redundant, cautious political posturing designed to ensure that no one’s feelings got hurt and that no one strayed far from their comfort zones or challenged their much-guarded political correctness.

Now, that’s not to say that everyone didn’t talk a lot. They most certainly did. And, their guarded political correctness spoke volumes about how they could talk, talk, talk and actually say practically nothing. At least nothing new. Most were redundant, boring and shallow and said very little to gain the confidence of the voter or enhance the voting process let alone encourage and motivate city residents to show up at the polls.

Those who did exercise their right to vote are responsible for the city officials that will take office in December. And now, it is our responsibility to make sure we get involved and support them in doing the people’s business.

Public service should be an honor. It should be a collective and collaborative partnership that results in progress and a better, richer and higher quality of life. The next two years will tell the true story.

As for now, we have gotten what we deserve so let’s make the best of it. November 2014 will be here before you know it.

Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.