By Mia Munn
Pittsboro, NC – I rarely make overtly political posts, but I think this election deserves one. I see this as a “right way or wrong way” election. If you like what governments (at the federal, state, community, school district) have done in the past two years, then you should vote for the party in control to expand their majorities. (At the federal level, that means Democrats, but at state, local, and school level that could be Republicans.) If you don’t like what has been done, then you should vote for the party NOT in power. If you don’t, you will get more of the same. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. That holds true for the consequences of elections.
If you follow or know me at all, you know that the most important issue to me is Covid policy, particularly the negative effect shutdowns and masking have had on kids. Because of that, in our local Chatham County School Board election, I urge you to vote for Jessica Winger and Tim Moore. I am sorely disappointed in the lack of courage that the current board had in NOT prioritizing kids’ education. (The exception was David Hamm, who fought in vain for normalcy for students in our schools.)
Other districts, like Union County NC where my grand-kids attend, had the courage to put kids first and were fully normal by fall 2020. That normalcy is reflected in their achievement – completely back to the pre-Covid level. Chatham County Schools was a follower instead of a leader. They “followed the experts”, but there were other experts (now proven correct), who were calling for normalcy in schools by summer 2020. I know the board knew about these other experts because I shared links to well-sourced evidence with them several times.
Voting matters – few people know that as clearly as I do: I lost my 2014 school board race by 109 votes (out of 23,991 votes cast in my race), 0.45%.
Whatever you do – Vote. Our schools, communities, states, and country depend on it.