This has not been the most uplifting of election seasons.
A town where party labels seldom mattered was split by partisan warfare. Waged on social media — and spilling over into mailings — campaigns fired away at opponents.
From accusations about out-of-town support, to removing negative comments from websites, to whispers of ulterior motives and warnings of doom — culminating yesterday in vandalism of signs for candidates of both parties — this was not the type of election Westport is used to.
But today is November 8. November 7 is history. The winners will take office, and the losers won’t.
Now is the time for both sides to be magnanimous, in victory and defeat. It’s the time for every Westport public official to vow to do his or her best for the good of the town, and for every Westporter who is not in office to vow to support those who are.
(Photo/Lynn U. Miller)
We will continue to disagree about things. That’s the Westport way.
We will argue about the town budget, taxes, affordable housing, commercial development, education, traffic, the beach, and anything else anyone can think of.
We will have our positions, and will defend them as strongly as we can.
But what is not up for argument is that this is our town. It’s our home. That’s why it’s called a “home town.”
We share these 26 square miles. We’re all in this together. We’re all we’ve got.
The election is over. It’s time to move on.
And there’s only one direction to go: Forward.
Hear hear, dan!
Extremely well put Dan.
I agree. And I hope as residents of this town, we can work together to try and keep things more positive next time around. At the end of the day ,we all want what’s best for our hometown.
Amen!
Thanks Dan and well spoken! Mike
Sent from my iPad
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Staples girls Field Hockey play in the first round of the “State’s” at Staples’s Ginny Parker Field against Wilton at 2 pm today. Great way for Westporters to come together, while cheering on our ladies!!
Let’s Go Staples!! Let’s go Westport!!
And Staples boys soccer team (with Dan as coach) will be playing against Ridgefield in second round of States….at Ridgefield, 6 pm tonight.
Best of luck.
Thanks, Bob. And congrats to Fairfield Warde (with your son Sam as captain). They play at Norwalk this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Good luck!
Well put, Dan. Westport has been moving closer to a bi-partisan town for almost ten years now. Not quite kumbaya – but the right balance. So we had a little bit of a hiccup, no worries…we start again today as neighbors and friends and we leave the bitter partisan fighting for others.
Bravo Dan! 👏
“We’re all in this together.” Not quite. It seems that about 35% of the eligible voters went to cast their ballots (absentee ballots included). So no, we are not “all” in this together. But that could change if the Town of Westport made voting mandatory (as they do in Brazil and Australia). Representative government relies on participation of everyone, indeed. That concept of mandatory voting would come with a financial penalty if a registered voter does not vote. So it would also be mandatory to register to vote if you live in this town. Something maybe for the new RTM to ponder. It is reprehensible to me that some citizens think they can abdicate their responsibility of citizenship. People have died to protect our right to vote. And if we don’t exercise that right, we will lose that right.
Many Australians would rather pay the fine than bother voting, and many who do vote spoil their ballots on purpose in protest.
Mandatory voting doesn’t seem very democratic.
Australians take voting quite seriously. Turnout is high for every level of government election. Not marking a voting paper is a conscious choice and while never advocated is as much a choice as any. Mandatory voting is clearly the best alternative, but having said that a sample size (the way it’s done here) gets essentially the same answer.
Yet aren’t Australians abroad exempt? Hasn’t turnout dropped in the last few years? Anyway, it is an interesting system.
Maybe you get a few bucks off your taxes if you DO vote!? Make it a positive reinforcement rather than a fine. Would be impossible to manage, I know….
Staples field hockey girls beat Wilton. Tough game!! They played great and we had a nice crowd. Nice to get back to the good things. 2-1. What a game.
Now onto the 1/4 finals.
Next time just give the score, not “beat”, as both teams give their best.
AMEN!!! Lets hope they listen…