Recently, some one near and dear asked me why I get involved in so many activities. The answer is surprisingly simple: It makes me feel good. Those five self-serving words create a singularly selfish reason and is my only motivator.
I know that our civilization is in bad shape. Those elected to represent us are all too often completely disinterested in making their community better. Instead, they seek power and money. It has been said that people to don’t run for office for money, they run for the power. I didn’t realize what that meant or even how true the statement was until I started seeing how often a candidate will say what they will do if elected only hear them boast about all of the programs they have created or worked on and how noble each of them is after they are elected.
I have been a Monday night armchair quarterback in politics for a number of years. It’s a safe place to be. You can rant and rave about this politician or that administration and you never really need to do anything. Talk radio is a great forum for the armchair politician. The host screams about how screwed up everything is since this person was elected or that law passed. You might even feel strong enough about s topic to call in and have your say. And that was the end of my political and civic involvement.
No, not even close. In elementary school I was a cub scout and an alter server (a.k.a. alter boy. And wouldn’t you know it, my son is also an alter server.). In high school I enrolled in the Army JROTC program. In college it was the police academy and sheriff’s academy. After becoming a parent I found myself looking to be involved again but this time with my children. I signed my son up for cub scouts and later boy scouts. I became an Assistant Scout Master and merit badge counselor which meant lots of training. It was fun but my son decided he wanted to focus on his school work so he dropped out of scouting.
When my son began preparing for high school and my oldest daughter for kindergarten, I began to look around at my community, recognizing the good and not so good that was around us. I found an opening on the City of Fullerton Citizen’s Infrastructure Review Commission, I applied, I appeared before the Council, and I was appointed with a 4-0 vote, Councilwoman Pam Keller being absent. Being a licensed land surveyor, I have an appreciation for the condition of our infrastructure and thought this would be a good place for me to help my community. At about the same time I was moved to support a candidate, Chris Norby, who I had believed in for several years for an election to the California State Assembly. Call me an opportunist but I saw this as a chance to elect someone who would actually try to change California for the good of our children. Chris Norby won in a landslide election in January 2010 leaving a void at the Orange County Board of Supervisor’s 4th District. In fact, it was at Chris’ victory party that I saw a sign which poked at my mind triggering that same instinct to pitch in and help for a worthy cause. That sign was quite simply NELSON FOR SUPERVISOR. Having watched Shawn Nelson’s voting record I was convinced that his election to the Board of Supervisors would be good for the County and Fullerton. So I volunteered to walk my precinct, place yard signs, and call voters just like I did for Chris Norby.
There are two other candidates that I support, Bill Hunt and Hugh Nguyen. In a previous thread I noted why I felt Hunt and Nguyen was the best choice for Orange County. Without regurgitating all of that, I will just say that Bill Hunt is as genuine as a man can be and Hugh Nguyen has experience and leadership qualities like no one else in the race for Clerk-Recorder. In a few days I will be holding a sign above a freeway to get people’s attention and remind them of who Bill Hunt is and soon I hope to help Hugh Nguyen. If you would have asked me to do these things just two years ago, I probably would have said, “No thanks!” But we are an ever evolving and changing community that I think needs direction from these people, the same people that need to be elected to office in order to affect change. Correction: we do not need these people to direct us; we need them to direct government to serve the people instead of the politicians. 
So, why spend time on local politics and not feeding the hungry or some other civic-minded operation? I already donate money to my church to feed and cloth the hungry and we cannot change as a society unless those who represent us are of the same mindset. With hard work and enough votes, we might see a complete change in local politics from the top down! With these new people we will likely see changes in our jail, labor unions, CCW’s, and agency policies. We could see fresh new ideas that challenge conventional politics.
One thing is for certain: if we continue to let the current team captains (political party leaders) manage and coach our team, we will continue to fail. Our children and grandchildren will have even more problems to deal with. More importantly, our quality of life, whatever life we have left, is certain to grow more dismal unless you make the effort to be involved.Current Cast Of Characters
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