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JOINING THE FIRST WORLD
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Mark Smith
Incumbent councilman running for reelection, Smith is a proponent of downtown camera surveillance
as a crime deterrent.
- Do you know how much it would cost to install camera equipment throughout the corporation?
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The incumbent, who is running for second term as town recorder, has pithy definition for streetscaping,
" Value inducing."
Councilman Jim Ford is running for reelection.
He favors a noise ordinance wants drivers to respect the community's right to quiet.
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Deborah Harding, candidate for Town Recorder, says,
"Let's avoid paralysis by analysis."
http://deboraharding.com
Harding tells gristforthemill why she is running for office,
"...my identity as a resident, neighbor and mother are what compelled me to
enter the race (these roles too bring interests), but also feel my past business experience and obvious investment in the
success of my husband's company make me sensitive to the needs of local business as well. I think this is a good
thing for the town. I believe myself to be someone of integrity, I certainly have my own mind separate from that of
my husband's, and would recuse myself of any vote should I (or anyone else) feel it to be a conflict of interest.
I do not feel my potential conflicts to be any more unique than other's standing for public office in Shepherdstown.
We all have a duty to objectively represent the interests of residents and to provide sound logic when doing so.
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It is not always possible to engage in civil dialogue with every member of the municipal administration.
Occasionally, public servants forget that they were elected to represent the entire community, not only the members of their
inner circle. Questions addressed to town officials often go unanswered. Perhaps the official to whom they are
addressed cannot find time for such trivial matters. Perhaps he feels that they do not come
from his peers, therefore can be be ignored with impunity. Perhaps he does not care to be challenged by obscure
citizens never seen at the restaurants and homes he frequents.
Be that as it may, there remain questions candidates for public office in Shepherdstown would to well
to consider. For example, why were the residents of the East and West End so conspicuously underrepresented
at the candidates forum? Have all town officials taken the time to listen how what East and West Enders think of town
government? How many of them visited these neighborhoods? How often? Did it occur to them that there are streets
where residents feel alienated and disenfranchised? We have no leper colonies in town and if we did,
compassion would be called for, would it not?
What is town government doing to encourage full participation in the political process by those who
feel neglected and excluded? Never mind parking, never mind camera surveillance, never mind proposing to pay thousands of
dollars to a town manager. Something new is brewing in Shepherdstown--a kind of unfocused anger and resentment simmers just
below the surface. It flares up here and there, it subsides, but it never really seems to go away.
This is a troubling phenomenon for those of us who knew a gentler Shepherdstown where
social inequities were not as painful to bear because there was a stronger sense of community. Racism existed, but there was
hope for change. Class differences existed, but either there were fewer plutocrats or they had the good grace not
to flaunt their loot. In the past fifteen years, much of Shepherdstown seems to have morphed into a movie set where
many of the wealthier actors seem to brim with a sense of entitlement. In this, our nouveaux
riches are no different than any other affluent citizens of the global village. In any society where money
can buy respectability, it is possible for there to arise the notion that the haves know better than the have-nots. Not
true.
That some town officials seem to ignore that their constituency includes retirees
in living on the leanest of fixed incomes is disturbing. In fact, it includes young unemployed townspeople
who have no hope of ever owning a house within miles of our pseudo-Brigadoon. It includes people who actually
go hungry.
Town government cannot expect to jolly along people who have more on their minds than cosmetic
measures designed to increase the appeal of the business district. It might be politic to factor in
those who cannot shop at our marvelous little gift shops, drink pricey espresso, eat organic beef, wear Birkenstocks,
vacation abroad.
Let's get real. Let's admit that there is poverty in Shepherdstown, that racism has abated, but
it is far from dead. Neither bagpipers toottling up and down German Street, nor folk dancing in local
parks, nor ever so sophisticated foreign movies, nor cutting edge theatrical performances, are going to obscure
these problems indefinitely. It is arrogant and obtuse to think that government by the privileged at the expense
of the poor ultimately is anything other than grotesquely unintelligent.
Clara Castelar
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