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LEADERSHIP
Many people today, voting citizens even, state that they do not follow nor are they the least bit interested in politics. How the word politics came to be from Greece, from the word politics, meaning roughly ‘of the people.’ Somehow, this word has come to mean something negative in most people’s minds. Yet, today, that word has come to mean the selection of our leaders and the process of that selection. This is a big deal, as the nation is about to discover if it loses things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans care and benefits.
Yes, stuff like that can go right up on the butcher block to be cut if a truly devastatingly bad leader is allowed into office. You get to decide that as citizens of this country. You get to decide if you want things to get better or worse by this decision-making process called democracy. A democracy has every ability to decide to make things worse or even end life as we know it. Should people be interested in politics and follow it as closely as a badly flawed and damaged national media will allow it?
You better believe it, unless you are a billionaire and have no real need for anything the culture seems to offer to most citizens. Usually, historically in so many countries, this does eventually, however, end up with the billionaires being led to chopping blocks. Will this happen in the USA? The answer a few years back would have been absolutely not. The answer in light of all the voting and elections is today; “maybe.”
With that in mind, the local elections are about to begin the process of selection of local leaders, sometimes as important or more important than the national leaders to every citizen’s benefit or deficit. With the start of the new year just ahead, so is the preparation for the upcoming spring election. The Spring primary if needed will be on February 18, 2025, and the Spring election is on April 1, 2025. The four alderpersons up for election are 1st District Alder-Incumbent Shari Straube, 2nd District Alder-Incumbent Linda Frame, 3rd District Alder-Incumbent Peg Esposito, and 4th District Alder-Incumbent Ken Howell.
Candidacy paperwork was due on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. We now know who is and who is not running. Linda Frame District Two Alderperson has filed Candidacy papers. District Four Alderperson Ken Howell was on medical leave for the last stretch of his term with Kathleen Stoodley filling his seat temporarily. Alderperson Esposito and Straube have filed noncandidacy paperwork. Janelle Powers and Robert Croce have filed Candidacy papers for District One Alderperson. The District Three Alderperson seat has one candidate running Brian Smith. As of right now, Ken Howell has filed neither candidacy nor non-candidacy papers. Cathy Stoodley has filed her candidacy papers hoping to keep her temporary seat on the council.
Lake Geneva has had remarkable success lately in attracting outstanding and caring citizens to fill city council positions and the GSR staff has high hopes that this will remain the case now and on into a bright future. Local leaders can go a long way toward fending off bad national decisions and also remove some of the fear that national people can send down through the ‘grapevine.’
