It took barely a day.
Campaign signs started going up around Williams Lake and almost immediately some were vandalized or damaged. I will be sending a photo with this letter because sometimes an image says more than another paragraph ever could.
Election campaigns are supposed to be about choices. Different candidates. Different ideas. Different values. Sometimes very different visions of what our community should look like. That is democracy.
I call myself progressive, a supporter of diversity and I am proud to call myself woke. You don’t have to be and I will respect your choice. Call me whatever you like.
What I can’t support or respect is vandalism and the oppression of other people’s choices. If you dislike a candidate, don’t vote for them. If you disagree with their policies, challenge them. Write a letter. Ask them hard questions. Put up a sign for someone else. Knock on doors. Have a debate at the coffee shop. Democracy gives us plenty of ways to disagree.
Destroying somebody else’s campaign sign is not debate. It does not make an argument stronger. It simply says that someone decided their opinion mattered more than another resident’s right to express theirs. That should concern all of us, regardless of where we sit politically.
We are going to disagree during this election. Good. We should. A healthy community can handle disagreement. A healthy democracy depends on it. But disagreement has to come with some basic respect for each other, for candidates willing to put their names forward and for the neighbours who choose to support them.
Leave the signs alone.
Thomas A. Schoen
Williams Lake
No comments:
Post a Comment