Best friends, opposite political views
Davey Sentell and Derek Woody grew up as neighbors and best friends but hadn’t seen one another in two years – until they ended up at the Fort Oglethorpe voting precinct at the same time on Tuesday, November 8. Neither was very happy about the choices on their ballots, though they admit they couldn’t be more opposite politically.
“Every local race was unopposed,” said Sentell. “You have the same people for 20 years and they’re all friends of each other, so it’s hard to imagine anything changing.”
In the ten local races on the Catoosa County ballot, candidates faced no opponents. Of the three state-level races, only one – public service commissioner – had multiple candidates running.
Both 27-year-old men agreed that the choices at the presidential level were poor ones this election. “There hasn’t been anyone in my adult lifetime who’s come in and won the hearts of the citizens like JFK did,” said Woody.
“Our generation should care more,” said Sentell. “We should get involved, but there’s not much motivation when you see how things have stayed the same for so long and you know that’s what the older generation expects of you – to maintain the status quo.”
Sentell, who has a wife and two young children, works as assistant manager of a beverage store. Woody works as a diesel mechanic. Both have traveled and agree the experience matured them. Sentell spent time abroad in France and Italy as a student ambassador and has traveled extensively in the United States, and Woody has worked on natural gas pipelines around the country. But their experiences have led to not only opposing political views but very different desires for the future.
“I grew up here, but I don’t see a future for my children in the area,” said Sentell, who has considered running for office but feels he’s too outspoken to have a chance of winning. “The wages, the way of life here keep you down. You have to find that one moment in time, that one opportunity to get out, or you’ll end up stuck here.” His hope is to live overseas someday, at least for part of the time his children are growing up.
Woody, on the other hand, has no political aspirations and no plans to move away from Northwest Georgia. “I just want to make my paycheck and be left alone.”
“This area needs what young people have to offer,” said Sentell. “It needs fresh ideas and the energy of young people if it wants to grow and change with the times.”
“We were picking on each other fairly hard,” Sentell said of his postvoting conversation with his lifelong friend, “but we still love the hell out of each other. One thing we’ve all been forgetting is we need both sides of the arguments for the world to turn.”