Too Much Vox

Otto Von Bismarck, Germany's 19th Century Iron Chancellor, once observed politics is the art of the possible, and it was the late Congressman Tip O'Neill who it's said claimed all politics is local. 

Combine those thoughts and we should have swarms of registered voters every time we have an election for City Council or the Board of Education. I leave it to your imagination as to why we don't.

While newspaper, social media, and television coverage of Politics with a capital "P" tends to fixate on the statehouse and Governor's Mansion or on Capital Hill and the White House, for most of us it really is those closest to home, our local elected officials, who have the greatest impact on our community and our quality of life. Yes, the President is the Commander in Chief but I'm not asking him about a cracked sidewalk at the house on the corner. (Hint: 'It's Biden's fault.')

We're about six months away from Norwich City Council and Board of Education elections. If you want it to feel (even) longer, let's call it half a year. This means lots of time for incumbents to make (more) progress on those projects they took on as their terms began. And plenty of time for those who are contemplating a run for elected office to measure at least twice before cutting once.

I don't care how you vote so much as that you do (I said that last November and have regretted that every day since, but still I persist). If you're registered to vote, make sure you do and if you're eligible to vote but aren't registered, make sure you do. Click here for the Registrar of Voters or for the Secretary of the State's Web Portal. 

Democracy is a contact sport and we cannot win if you do not play. Let's face it, the current terms of office of members on both bodies have not been a walk in the park for anyone on them. Some say we should regard a problem as an opportunity to excel and in that context, those in office have been spoiled for opportunities. So, too, have we even when on more than one occasion I've disagreed with decisions the neighbors who serve in elected office have made.

There's a temptation when you're not Teddy Roosevelt's Man in the Arena to speculate about how well someone else might do in office. Hypotheticals seem to lend themselves to much happier endings, whether those endings are real or not. I've often contended that had my mother married a Kennedy, I might be living in the White House. But she didn't, so I'm not. See how much more attractive fictional lives can be?

But in the here and Norwich in which we live, between now and November look at where we are as a city and where you see us heading. Nothing is eaten as hot as it's served and nothing's so wonderful that it cannot be improved. We are always in need of another great idea and the energy to implement it and no one in any party has a monopoly on either.

Many of us believe we're rebuilding downtown and enhancing our community's quality of life as well as improving our grand list. Many others are not so sure. There's room for both the hopeful and the skeptic. What we are now is what we were at the last election and the election before that. 

What we are to be is limited only by our willingness to find out. It's not how you start, it's how you finish and we're far from done.

-bill kenny