20060925 Cartoon on Carroll County primary elections

“A little group of lit’l green people have landed in my soup”

© Kevin Dayhoff Sept. 13th, 2006

Of schadenfreude and irony

September 25th, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff

Perhaps the cartoon above will explain the results of the Carroll County primary elections. It is as if a group of little green people have landed in Carroll County to provide us with the proverbial “fly in the ointment” to our quality of life.

I’m not really sure if this past Carroll County primary election is a few clowns short of a circus or an experiment in artificial stupidity.

To repeat a wonderful observation by the Washington Post some time ago – that I sure wish I had written: “The numbing repetition of uncorrected falsehoods creates a phony atmosphere of uncertainty around key questions... Eventually voters throw up their hands and accept the fact that they’ll never know for sure what the truth is, and confusion ensues.”

Confusion as to what is real and what is nefarious mythology reigns in Carroll County today and there is plenty of blame for everyone.

Hopefully soon, our community leaders will take heed to the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a January 8th, 1940 speech, in which he said: “The future lies with those wise politicians who realize that the great public is interested more in government that in politics.”

We would all like to think that misrepresentations about the issues or the legacy and performance of a particular candidate or candidates is foreign to what we hold dear as Carroll County values.

That said; our history is replete with examples to the contrary. But that doesn’t mean that in the past such misrepresentations prevailed to sway the outcome of the election or that such negative campaigning represents our values.

To be sure there have been many pivotal elections in Carroll County’s history. Only history will decide if this is one. But looking back 150 years ago to the Carroll County of 1856 is worthy of note.

When Carroll County was formed in 1837, the nation was dealing with the “Panic of 1837,” one of the worst recessions in our nations history.

The late 1840s and early 1850s witnessed many new folks move into Carroll County and roads and infrastructure, jobs creation and access to markets became hotly contested political issues. The new folks agitated aggressively for changes.

It was in this time period that the “Know-Nothing Party” reared its ugly head against immigrants; the scope, size and role of government; local decision making versus federal or centralized state decisions; and just a generalized anger about anything that moved or wanted to move.

The challenge for the elected leadership was the lack of revenue to execute the changes for which many clamored. As the revenue picture brightened, everyone wanted everything for which they had waited for so many years.

The 1837 recession lasted well into the 1840s. In 1851, the form of government in Carroll County was changed from nine commissioners appointed by the governor to three commissioners elected locally to two year terms.

But the acrimony and turmoil of the cry for changes continued, fueled by what some historians call the great Carroll County newspaper war, in which the warring camps fought it out in the newspaper, that is, when they weren’t verbally and physically assaulting each other. And the newspapers certainly threw gasoline on the fire…

Fast-forwarding to the present; my definition of negative campaigning is either a concerted whisper campaign to distort the performance of a candidate or the outright publication of such distortions, either by political ads and literature or by an advocacy oriented newspaper(s).

Selective quotation and trivialities trumping substance in an obvious attempt to distort the facts seem to be the rule of the day. It is always the source of amazement to observe folks who, in the same utterance, plead for understanding and tolerance for their views and then demonize anyone who doesn't agree with them.

A rule among classier community leaders prohibits promoting oneself by personally sniping at someone who holds a different point of view than yours. It is not only bad form but smacks of bullying and could wind up hurting your own cause, as you only look like someone with the warmth and humanity of a water moccasin.

However, it is fascinating to now see folks who have in the past participated in negative campaigning now write columns suggesting the horror of it all in righteous indignation.

In the scalding criticism and politics of personal destruction that passes for contemporary political realism and the social commentary of the day, it is important that we take out a moment to appreciate what a great county we live in and all the positive things for which we have to be thankful.

Not a day passes when we don’t read scathing criticism of someone who has taken time away from his or her family to try and make our community, municipality, county or country a better place. One can be sure that this certainly doesn’t encourage other good folks to step forward and volunteer time for their community.

Any community leader, whether we agree or disagree with his or her ideas, needs to be respected for sticking their head above the crowd to try and make a difference and contribution. It is important to confine our disagreement to their ideas and leave the person, their chosen profession and their family out of it. Remember, you can’t get to heaven based on the sins of others.

The sea change on the part of Carroll County citizens against residential growth in Carroll County has long-since taken a turn for the ugly – and this didn’t take place over-night.

The seeds for the unpleasantness of this past primary election were sown in the 2002 elections when good folks were simplistically demonized in a smear campaign to promote another approach to managing growth in our county.

As much as I continue to have no interest in any hardly any new housing development in Carroll County - - you can’t take away a person’s property rights by plebiscite or an angry mob.

I have grown exhausted with the erosion of our quality of life. Not only the traffic, mind you – but the pollution that pervades the public discourse about residential growth.

Folks seem to feel indemnified to be painfully unpleasant because of their righteous outrage over any new development in the county. Often, but not always, they are the very same folks, who travel to the public hearing from their half-a-million dollar home in what was once a beautiful farm.

However demonizing developers and real estate professionals is a non-starter. Personally attaching an elected official because they have a different point of view about growth, taxation or the size and scope of government, should also be off the table.

The fascinating thing about the primary election for the Carroll County Commissioners is that the one commissioner that was most respectful to those with a different point of view was Commissioner Perry Jones – the only commissioner to not make it through the primary. Go figure.

The worst thing that can happen to a community is that everybody thinks the same way all the time.

But it will be catastrophic if potential leaders are unwilling to step out of the comfortable cocoon of their lives to assume a leadership role or proffer a different point of view for fear of the politics of personal destruction.

If you have the negative energy and the time, anything or anyone can be criticized. It takes only a little misplaced imagination.

Saint Francis of Assisi, who lived back in the 13th Century, said where there is hatred you have to send love; where there is doubt you have to send faith; where there is injury you have to send pardon...

The answer to the problems we face personally and as a society is in being able to bring a higher, more loving, more spiritual energy to whatever it is we confront. When we do, slowly, inch-by-inch, we will become a better society, a better people, and a better world.

A community cannot prosper if individuals fail and we don't rediscover some sense of civility and practice daily acts of kindness to one another.

The answer lies in the ability to listen with respect to those with whom we deeply disagree, in an attempt to catch in their remarks some truth we may have missed, in order to find a meaningful compromise.

Misrepresenting history, comparing our neighbors to nefarious folks from the past and calling folks names is not a good place to begin the healing process for Carroll County. Such righteous indignation, often by the very same folks who have participated in negative campaigning in the past, only perpetuates a negative climate and atmosphere in our community.

Participatory grass roots democracy, open and transparent dialogue is not for the weak of heart. However, if we have learned anything from history, hopefully we have learned that name-calling, pointing fingers, rumor mongering and being impolite, loud, bizarre and disagreeable is not the best way of solving problems.

It is extremely important that we explore alternative ways of peace, positive conflict resolution and nonviolence. It is not necessarily the challenge that counts nearly as much as the thoughtful and well considered response to the challenge.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org www.thetentacle.com Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report www.thewestminstereagle.com www.kevindayhoff.com