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Opinion NORMAN K. STYER
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Make A Difference
A
sk candidates for state and local office about the issue that most concerns them in this year’s election and you’re likely to get a troubling answer. Increasingly, they’re trying to make voters care enough to go to the polls. Based on what they are hearing on the campaign trail, Loudoun may be gearing up for the lowest turnout ever for a general election. That may not be surprising given the trend over the past two decades. The percentage of registered voters making time to head to the polls to elect county supervisors, School Board members and other local office holders has declined by almost half between 1991 and 2011. In 1991, half of eligible voters cast ballots. Turnout dropped below 30 percent for the first time in 2011. This year, there is a possibility that fewer than one in four voters will bother. In contrast, turnout for presidential elections has held up well in the face of the county’s rapid growth. In 1992, 85 percent of Loudoun’s 49,000 voters had their say in the race between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, with the majority giving their support to the Republican candidate. In 2012, more than 76 percent of the county’s 210,392 voters cast ballots in the race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, with the majority backing the Democrat’s re-election. If those participating in the presidential elections represent “active” voters, then two-thirds of active voters are choosing to stay home during local and state elections. They are choosing not to have a say in local development, transportation and tax policy. They are choosing not to have input on the level of school funding, how many kids are in their child’s class or what subjects should be taught. They are choosing not to help determine state government priorities, including investments in infrastructure and higher education. They appear to care more about who is going to jump in the sandbox with Vladimir Putin than those who will have the most impact on their quality of life here at home. Remember this next time the School Board or Board of Supervisors take a vote you disagree with, to eliminate a school program or approve a development in your backyard or offer another company a tax break you can’t get. No doubt those actions would be viewed as crises by some. More likely, the crisis occurred on Election Day. That is when two-thirds of the people who could make a difference decided not to. n
LETTERS to the editor Looking Ahead
A Dear Editor:
fter reading last week’s article about the Copeland family’s 250th anniversary of their farm in Hillsboro, I have a reflection and a
challenge. The earliest we, as English-speaking Europeans, walked permanently in these lands was only 407 years ago. My wife Di’s family created a home on this land 188 years ago, a very significant portion of our national history. My children’s paternal grandfather came to Wilmington, NC, in 1752 after being born in Germany. His son, the first John Henry, was 50 percent Cherokee. Samantha Lightfoot, whose people were here about 13,000-14,000 years BCE was their paternal grandmother. The secular civilization of China and the polytheistic civilization of India arose with bronze and iron and are still in place. Egypt’s civilization is gone as well as several minor civilizations that left very little behind. Greeks, Persians (2000 BCE), Jews, Romans (1000 BCE), Buddha (450BCE) and Arabs (Islam 600CE) left indelible marks on the way we think today. Our children are in a melting pot or crucible, whatever way you want to look at it. The velocity of change is incredible. As a child I lived in two houses without telephones, none without electricity, all had a radio. I was 16 when we got a 12-inch black and white television. It cost $200 ($2,550 at today’s price adjusted by the CPI) My children and their children have opportunity everywhere on this
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Next Week’s Question:
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planet. Their children are decreasingly limited by birth, class, sex, skin color and language. They are increasingly enabled by intellectual, emotional, technical and linguistic competence. We are on the threshold of a dramatically new age in global governance. Our national dismay at our governance is a symptom. What is the solution? I don’t know. I do know that socialism didn’t work principally because it created a large non-productive burden of bureaucracy. Capitalism and socialism have major problems with maintaining the education of the masses to provide a ready work force to cope with a rapidly changing future. Capitalism also has difficulty in differentiating between the wealth generated by an individual and the wealth developed by an individual acting as a leader to others. The future is dependent on the development of the next generation. The creation of an infant is easy. The progression from infancy to young adulthood requires focused “motherhood” and “family” as well as education and opportunity. “Motherhood” and “family” are in quotes since the essential functions of both seem to be evolving by necessity in today’s world. Now the important part of this reflection: What are our family vision and immediate goals? What are the synthesized vision and immediate goals of our grandchildren? Dr. John H. Cook III, Leesburg
A New Flag?
Dear Editor: Developers are contributing thousands of dollars to elect a developmentfriendly Board of Supervisors. Aren’t
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