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Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Page: 7A
OPINION
IF ELECTION DAY is the single most crucial day to decide the future, then
the second most important day is April 21. That’s the last chance people of
Luzerne County will have to actually register to vote prior to the May 20
primary.
When so few people actually vote in elections, a small percentage of
ballots can make difference. It can make a challenger the winner and the
incumbent a memory.
That should be the case in Wilkes-Barre, where incumbent Mayor Tom
McGroarty had to search for a neighborhood with enough improvements to
announce on Monday his bid for a third term. On that street corner, he counted
progress in the past eight years as painting fire hydrants, evicting crack
dealers and collecting recycling.
Everywhere else, people call that the usual taking care of business.
It’s obviously time for a change, not only in Wilkes-Barre but in some
other communities as well. If enough people register to vote, it should
encourage candidates to engage the issues before the Nov. 4 election.
There will be plenty to vote for: county commissioners, judges, county row
officers from sheriff to the recorder of deeds. There will be votes cast for
area school board members and officials serving municipalities from Ashley to
Yatesville and scores in between.
With a sliding economy, a federal government anyone can see is stretched
and states without much recourse, it’s even more important for local officials
to run communities efficiently and carefully.
Everyone has a stake in the future, and voting is the only time we’re
guaranteed to have input. It’s a right that’s been earned by the sweat and
fight of our forerunners. It’s a right we keep only if we take part.
The office of voter services is in the Penn Place building at East Market
Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre. Now is the time.
Now is the time for area college students to shed the image of apathy.
Now is the time for people who earn below the poverty line to vote with the
same power as a millionaire.
The new citizens, the jaded elders. Here is your chance. The country has
changed since it was founded. There is plenty to make a citizen jaded.
But there’s only one thing to make a voter feel righteous.
This is America. Register. Vote.