LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Move Rainsville Forward, Win or Lose

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Move Rainsville Forward, Win or Lose

The following letter was submitted to the Southern Torch by Rainsville citizen Nick Hall. If you have thoughts you would like to be considered for print or posted to our website, send them to tyler@southerntorch.com. 

Dear Editor,

Tomorrow is Election Day in Rainsville, just as it is in cities, towns and hamlets all across our state.  By the time you read this the voting will be over and we, the citizens, will have exercised our constitutional right to select those who will represent our interest for the next few years.  

I, for one, have always found municipal elections to be somewhat unpleasant.  In a town the size of Rainsville, it’s common to have close connections to multiple candidates running for a single office—and therein lies the unpleasantness.  

Candidates tend to take this business more seriously than the average voter, and rightly so.  They are the ones spending hard earned dollars on advertising, long days and late nights away from their families campaigning, and putting themselves out there to be judged by the public.  What has to be understood, however, is the position the small town voter is in.  Much of the time, we are essentially asked to choose sides between friends and family.  The old adage, “the enemy of my friend is not my enemy” comes to mind.  Candidates sometimes become offended when they shouldn’t.  

In a municipal election in a town the size of Rainsville, many votes come down to a simple tie breaker.  You may like both candidates but you went to school with one.  Maybe you think both candidates would be great for Rainsville but one is your cousin, or fellow church member, or neighbor.  It doesn’t automatically follow that, just because you vote for one candidate, that you are truly opposed to the other.  When people ask me who I’m “for” I say Rainsville.  Who I’m “voting” for is a different question.

I say all of that to say this:  Most likely, some of the candidates you voted for will win and some will lose.  However, if you care about Rainsville more than politics, you will nurse your wounds, look for some way to serve your community, and support the winners in a positive manner as we all try to move Rainsville forward.  Does that mean going along with everything the mayor and council do?  Certainly not.  But there is a right way and a wrong way to disagree, and we cannot expect our elected officials, whoever they are, to understand that if we don’t understand it ourselves.

God Bless Rainsville,

Nick Hall

Rainsville, Alabama