Our admonition is simple. Go vote. The polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Take part in this important responsibility.
With neither embarrassment nor hesitance, we proudly believe that this part of northeast Alabama owns a future unlike its recent past. There are vast improvements to make, yes — in public education, in political discourse, in the reduction of poverty and crime, in job-creation and regional thinking. Calhoun County is not a finished product.
But the Calhoun County of 2012 is not the model of a decade ago. Our chemical weapons cache is gone, much of our industrial pollution has been removed, and McClellan’s development is inching along. The Veterans Memorial Parkway is halfway finished; its second half is scheduled to open during the next four-year political cycle.
Calhoun County is primed for its next phase.
That’s why today, Election Day, is so critical. This is quintessential local politics. Often it is that Alabamians can feel detached from their representatives in Montgomery or Washington, but city politics can be different; local people make decisions that can affect our lives and bring attention — good and bad — to our towns. We know these people, and they know us. In many cases, they are our friends and neighbors.
The key, of course, is to get us to pull in the same direction, to build up our towns instead of impeding their progress. Perhaps that’s what Calhoun County needs more than anything else.
Crowded fields in several local races give voters many choices when they mark their ballot. But consider that a healthy sign that so many Calhoun Countians are eager to roll up their sleeves and help our cities. There seems to be no shortage of political eagerness.
So go vote. Make it a priority. Have your say in the county’s next four years.
