Don’t Vote For Me

By Jim Walker, Candidate for Ward 1 on the Santa Ana City Council

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Don’t vote for me, vote for – yourself!   These are far more than just “interesting times”, they are changing times that can change everything – for the better or for the worse.

If you are not awake by this time, then there are probably people out there right now making plans to bury you.  Consider the overwhelming debt we are already buried in, not to mention being inundated daily by massive spin campaigns designed to distract us and turn us one way or another, leaving even the dead – spinning in their graves.

They call this the “Silly Season” (personally I call it the “Psychotic Season”) and yet it is a time, like no other time, when we should be gravely serious about our future and take a sober look at just where we are now and how we got here.

There are truly signs of doom and gloom everywhere, not just the Halloween signs now appearing on lawns but the “Foreclosure” and “Bankruptcy” signs going up daily throughout our community and country.

It is in these days and nights, more than at any other time, when we need to keep the faith.  The faith of what really matters to us.  We need to remember what it was we were all about and the dedication it took to give us the heritage, the culture and yes, the very economy we had inherited.

Is our inheritance what we will be able to pass along to our children?  Will we have improved our condition from what we were given and passed it along with value added to the next generation?

Can we still remember that our inheritance had something to do with liberty, of having a life and pursuing happiness?  Let us look around and judge just how far we have come in achieving these goals, or just how far away we have strayed.

One of the most successful American enterprises has been International Business Machines or IBM which used the one word “THINK” for it’s business slogan, years later one of it’s arch rivals; Apple uses the slogan, “THINK AGAIN”.  A lesson for all of us might be to “Think, think again, but most of all – think for ourselves!”

At this time I would ask citizens to do their homework.  Ask about what the candidates for office have done for you lately – or at any time.  Compare their records of community service and actual contribution to making our community a better place to live.   Then get out there and vote for those candidates you believe have actually been working for you.

Voter turn out is the leading indicator of whether or not our democracy is working.  It is always sad hear new examples of how low voter turnout in our country compares to the high turnout in many developing countries.  Have we forgotten what distant democracies hold so dear and still appreciate as they cast their vote, doing so in the full knowledge that they are actually casting their fate.

Like “Community Oriented Policing”, Community Oriented Government only happens when the community is involved.  Think about all that could be and think about all that could be lost.  You and your neighbors’ votes add up and do make – all the difference in the world.

If you want to count for something then be sure to vote and do everything you can to encourage others to make themselves count as well by participating in this election season with the greatest voter turnout ever of “informed citizens”.

How much does Community Oriented Government mean to you?  For better or for worse, people will make the times what they will be.  We have been given so much to work with, that even now could be our greatest hour yet.  It is up to us and it is up to you.

When you vote – vote for yourself.