It is a sound bite, admittedly. But it sticks with me like an effective sound bite is intended to do. And so I’m opening this last column before the election with a quote from a piece of campaign literature, of all things.
And it is not an accusation or a conspiracy theory. It isn’t about blame or fear-baiting.
It is a simple statement on behalf of the four candidates running as the Citizens for Progressive Action/VMA slate.
A slate, they say, “whose philosophy is rooted in being for things, not against them.”
This resonates with me. I’m so ready for Oak Park to once again be marching toward something worth achieving rather than splintering over incidentals and self-interest. The last two years, four years, eight years, 16 years have been a cacophony of bickering at the edges with a soft core of weak leadership.
That is harsh. It is, I know, too much a generalization. But it is also about right. And it is now a long enough period that no one escapes responsibility for this predicament. Those are years of one-party VMA dominance and the VMA in full retreat. They are years of gathering opposition that just never got its act together. They are years in which Oak Park did not accomplish near what it should have, even though our property values crescendoed. A time in which the shared goals of the 1970s and into the 1980s lapsed and weren’t replaced.
Now we’ve reached a low point with multiple trustees resigning mid-term, a badly botched redevelopment effort in Downtown Oak Park which is emblematic of village trustees who claim to listen to everyone, trust nobody and can’t come to a conclusion for the life of them. We grasp at “mobilizing issues” such as saving the mall or saving the West Sub graystone while frittering the real opportunities to save the whole of our downtown shopping district or negotiating effectively with a big institution like Resurrection Health Care.
We’re all about distracting symbols because they seem easier than actual problem-solving and adult talk.
Folks, the challenges in Oak Park are not at all insurmountable and the opportunities are unlimited. If next week, we elect four bright, willing, hopeful village trustees, many good things could happen quickly. And there are a number of bright, willing and hopeful candidates to choose from-eight by my count.
The sound bite above is from the Johnson, Pate, Hale and Hedges quartet backed by the VMA. The foursome put together by the New Leadership Party-Dolan, Lyon, Meyer and Shiffer-also reflect a hopefulness and a middle ground that is encouraging, though the level of experience is not so great as the VMA group.
It is the final four, the VCA slate of Milstein, Schwab, Balanoff and Abraham, who give me worry. These are the people who see progress in division not inclusion, who over-meddle and under-govern, who reflect a basic suspicion that is far different from healthy skepticism.
Every election is big. This one is bigger.
