Our energies are better spent on local issues and candidates
Margaret Carlson wrote a wonderful column “I Like Mayors Better: Unlike Members of Congress, They Have to Get Things Done” (Oct. 11), and I could not agree more the reality she expressed so well.
For the last five years, as an affiliate member of the Garden Club of America, I traveled yearly to Washington, D.C., to participate in a weeklong national affairs and legislative conservation conference. This year, the mood in Washington was bleak. One after another, federal agency leaders spoke to us of the lack of progress being made to govern, until it dawned on me that nothing is happening in Washington politics that is going to positively affect my life in any meaningful timeframe. It was then that I made a decision to throw my energies into local city politics for the possibility of seeing progressive change take place in real time.
Bill Peduto had already proved himself to me as a responsive, honest and hard-working city council district representative on a number of occasions in which I had asked him to intervene in issues that arose within my neighborhood. Likewise, his chief of staff, Dan Gilman, dem- onstrated smart, pragmatic and innovative solutions to the day-today issues that plague cities coping with insufficient funds and crumbling infrastructures. Both men live and work in my neighborhood, make themselves accessible and always get the job done.
My time spent campaigning and fundraising for both these dedicated public servants was well spent, and I felt privileged to be able to take part in the democratic process, as our forefathers imagined it when they framed the original democratic government intent. I am delighted both Dan Gilman and Bill Peduto won their hard-fought primary victories and have confidence they will prevail in the November elections. I encourage all who love our city to come out, roll up your sleeves and get involved to help these two men to accomplish all they hope to do, to safeguard our present and innovate for our future.