This is a different kind of post for this blog and yet I feel it’s important enough to talk about, especially for us Central New Yorkers.

The political season is, luckily, almost over, and at least I feel I’m somewhat informed on who the major candidates are and I’m secure in my voting position. Having said that, I’m still dismayed by what I feel is a lack of, well, “what’s in it for us”.

The major local race is for Congress; no, I’m not mentioning either name. The commercials for the most part have been horrendous, if expected. The softer commercials… well, they are what they are. But I haven’t heard either candidate talking about what we as local folks need, or want.

In my opinion, there’s a major distinction in why we send certain people to Washington. Senators should be concerned with their state, but they’re also entrusted with looking at how things are going for the country at large; that’s why there’s only 2 of them per state, for proper balance.

We sent representatives to Washington to look out for us; not all the people as much as local people. We expect that local representatives will be more in tune with our specific needs and, sorry to say, find ways of bringing home the bacon, pork if you will, so that we can address things like education, roads, local jobs, etc.

While some might find it laudable that our present representative put through a bill to launch an investigation into the Lockerbie Scotland terrorist attack from 25 years ago, I wondered why there wasn’t as much of a push in trying to get funding for our local economy in technology, since many of us know that’s where the local push is as far as new job creation goes. Every year we pay tribute to those whose lives were lost on that day, and we’ll never forget what happened, but truthfully what more is there to learn when those who we know set it up are all deceased, and the families were finally compensated for their grief? Is that really the best way of helping to fund local issues now?

Of course, we also have some state races to deal with, but it’s pretty close to the same thing. How many of us are sick of seeing a commercial with a politician walking through a factory? We have crumbling neighborhoods in the city, dying malls without stores, a growing homeless issue and turmoil in local health care. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a candidate step up and address how they’re going to help us with some of these things?

We’re two weeks away from voting day. The ugly commercials are going to become more numerous and ugly as we get closer to that day. My bet is that none of them will address anything that specifically affects those of us in central New York. That means we pretty much lose no matter who’s elected, and that’s a shame.
 

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