Letter to the Editor: Making Positive Choices
By Rossland Telegraph
Dear Editor,
It’s election time again and the citizens of Rossland will shortly bid farewell to another exhausted band of bleary-eyed, twitchy-nerved veterans of the three years of purgatory that is public service in the Mountain Kingdom.
And once again there are new folks itching to take their place, to settle their bums on the seats of power. Surprisingly really, but then despite the horrors of trench warfare in WW 1 there were always fresh recruits lining up for slaughter, similarly motivated to create a new world order from the morass of subterfuge, intrigue and despotism they saw in the world.
I suppose there is something to be said for dissatisfaction. If everyone were happy with the state of the world there would be precious little progress; though it’s the progress they see that makes some unhappy. Everyone has their own view of what should be right for the world, and there will always be disagreement and disappointment. The challenge for Council is to work constructively together, considering the advice of its professional staff and the community experience each member brings to the table together with the various viewpoints of an informed public, to reach a decision that best serves the interests of the community as a whole.
Rossland has serious challenges ahead. We cannot afford more of the nonsense we went through over this past summer. It was incongruous to me that while so many in our community were working constructively together through the cooperative Visions to Action strategic planning process, there were those who were engaged in tactical manoeuvres to destroy the credibility of fellow citizens to achieve their own ends. Though they might have persuaded themselves they were defending community interests, generating a climate of fear and distrust is destructive and damages the reputation of our community. We cannot afford that.
I believe Rossland will be better served by those who would build rather than those who would tear down; by those who would encourage rather than those who would reproach; and by those who would aspire to ‘Can Do’ rather than ‘Should Not’. The Row Busters Dragon Boat Team knows the formula for success: all pull together and in the same direction. To borrow a current phrase: “Yes we can!”
That is how I shall make my choices on November 15.
Yours truly
Graham Kenyon
Rossland
