9:29 p.m. - 2003-11-06
Reminders
I had just finished reading the newspaper and was starting on my second cup of coffee when the phone rang. It was my alderman on his way to a budget committee meeting - poor guy. I've sat through those - mostly for our school board. They are painful in that the committee usually works six months going over all the minute details before recommendations are made and then a good chunk of the work is thrown out, because of public reaction based on very little information other than 3 second clips or a half paragraph here and there in the "local" section of the newspaper.
Anyway he just wanted to know if someone from Emergency Services had called me - yes Response. He also wanted to know if I was recovered yet, just as the head of the department had asked. Good people in politics are out there, but you have to watch closely to see the truth. My current alderman sometimes gets branded a grandstander because if he is passionate about something, he'll be very expressive about it through the press. Problem is that I've watched a number of really dedicated elected people who spent 80 or better hours a week toiling away on behalf of their constituents just to be voted out because no one took the time to find out what they did. A new opponent often has to find or twist just one misstep and everything else they've done is discounted in the voters eyes.
Sometimes communities and countries get bad leadership because they're too lazy or gullible to take responsibility for their choices. This alderman (who only just began representing our area after a recent boundary change), one other fellow from an adjoining constituency to the south and the MLA for that area, always went to bat for our volunteer committees on issues that had to do with quality of life for our communities' families. None of them had anything to gain from it, because we can only vote for candidates in our ward, but each of them would call me from time to time to check on what was going on and to help when they could. They all would also invite me to meetings of their local "rabble rousers"/"community activists/advocates" so we could network and share strategies. Real democracy in action. Yet, since the press didn't highlight that, two of the three have lost their seats based on people not understanding how much they invested into making this city better. In fact, in both cases, the press gleefully participated in the character assasination tactics, that was patently false, of their opponents during those reelection bids, I guess because controversy sells more papers. Play to the lowest common denominator and too often that's what you end up with in office. I'm glad this gentleman has been able to survive this long - his service to the citizens of Calgary deserves to be recognized.
Anyway, it was really nice to reconnect with him again, but it seems as though every time I turn around lately I'm being reminded of all the people and the work I did as a volunteer. It was enough of a kick in the teeth to have to give that and the time I wanted with my sons up, when my ex deserted our family without having to be reminded of it so forcefully right now. I still miss it a great deal, I guess, or it wouldn't bother me so much to be reminded of it. Oh well, just a few more years then maybe I won't have to work so hard to make ends meet and I can find a way to work part-time and volunteer part time instead.
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