The race for trustees seems to be quite contentious. I hope people will keep a few things in mind. First, some people have referred to an issue with the current board being all white. No matter which slate you vote for, that isn’t going to be the case. One slate has all black candidates, and the other has two Latinx candidates and one Asian American. No matter what, it’s going to be a more diverse board.
Second, there’s no rule that says you have to vote for one slate. You can pick individual candidates, mixing two from one slate and one from the other. It seems like everyone is set on one slate or the other. It’s possible that the board might benefit from having different perspectives to add to the discussions of the issues.
Third, this is not a Trump-vs-Biden, polar-opposites situation. All of the candidates are people who want to serve the community and are promising many of the same things. I realize some people are quite adamant that some candidates are better than others, and they may be right, but all of them say that they want diversity, inclusion, affordability and greater transparency. All of them say they want to support small businesses and the commissions. All of this, combined with the end of Wednesday Journal endorsements, makes it a greater challenge for all of us to do the research and find and vote for the best choices.
Finally, I hope that once the election is over we will put it behind us and come together as a community, no matter how it turned out.
Joyce Porter, Oak Park
