Good Morning, Michael
re: "In my case, all I wanted was the opportunity to express my
agreement or disagreement with the final selection. This is
what has me feeling left out of the decision."
I see. You don't want to participate in the process but you want to
influence the outcome. How egocentric.
This is not about our opinion of our own views, it is how our views are
regarded by others. If we lack the courage, fortitude and commitment to
press our views as long as we can persuade others of their value, why
should anyone care what we think?
The process selects the people who epitomize the attitudes and
aspirations of the community. It does so by slowly coalescing the
judgments of those who best express the interests of their peers.
Individuals may not seek candidacy or election, but they have an
obligation ... to themselves and to their community ... to seek
attainment of the objectives they deem important. If they are unwilling
to do so, the community would be foolish to heed them.
Opting out is a trivial matter, it can be done at any level. (For most
of us, it won't be necessary. Our peers will see to it we don't advance
above the level of our value.) If you choose not to participate, that
is your option, but there is not, and should not be, any obligation for
others to yield to the opinions of those unwilling to exert their best
efforts to improve our government.
re: "There are 9000 electors in my ward, yet only 32 of them
decided in favour of these new Councillors?"
Does this mean you disapprove of representative democracy? If so, the
difference in our views can't be bridged.
The 32 (actually 6 in the Sefton example) were carefully examined and
selected by their peers. They were chosen because they were deemed most
representative of the people who selected them. Is this not
inordinately better than having a political elite tell us who our
representative is going to be.
With regard to the balance of your message, it seems to be mostly an
exercise in facetiousness. I'm hard pressed to find anything worthy of
a response. There is, however, one misrepresentation that warrants
clarification:
re: "... this new electoral method has stolen my vote for Council"
The petition specifically requests implementation of Practical Democracy
as a method of selecting 'candidates'. Even people like you, who do not
participate in the selection process, shall have the opportunity to vote
for the candidate of their choice.
If you have specific comments or questions, I will respond to them. If
you wish to editorialize, you can do so without my assistance.
Fred
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