Making Informed Decisions Pays Off
Shaking snow off their clothes, a delighted throng trooped through Spokane’s brand-new South Hill branch library a few weeks ago, marveling at the good things the people of a community can do, together, when they vote yes. This greatly improved facility now puts books and literacy in a position to compete, vigorously, for the interest of the next generation and the edification of us older folks as well.
On Tuesday, Spokane County voters said yes again. Loudly. They seemed to brush away the anti-government angst of our times as if it were the melting flakes of winter’s final storm. School levies and bond issues, which two years ago were getting a chilly reception indeed, passed by huge approval margins, mostly in the 75 percent to 85 percent range.
What a turnaround! And what a relief. The community ought to feel proud - and will, as Tuesday’s balloting bears fruit in better libraries for county residents and expanded, renovated schools for residents of the Spokane Valley. Teachers and school administrators are enjoying a needed moment in the sun because voters so clearly reaffirmed their support for the role public schools play in keeping a community livable and an economy alive.
But the spotlight really belongs on ordinary citizens, who heard the angry alarm bells and mobilized aggressive campaigns for the schools on which their neighborhoods, their children and their grandchildren depend.
This informed, constructive, grass-roots activism sets an example for all of us to consider as the presidential election year settles in like a nine-month blizzard.
We may know our local schools and libraries, but according to recent surveys by the Washington Post, a majority of Americans give incorrect answers when asked rudimentary questions about who occupies top federal posts and how federal government operates. (Fifty-eight percent told the Post they get their information from television, which explains a lot.)
This is why partisan campaign managers target two distinct audiences. For the informed, they offer position papers and debates. For the uninformed, they prepare attack ads that reduce public policy to the intellectual level of a Road Runner cartoon.
Just as schools are imperfect, complex and essential, so are many state and federal services. If the public can wage intelligent, intense campaigns to improve local schools and libraries, what could happen in state and federal government if people at the grass roots would start working seriously to inform themselves for November’s elections?
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board