From Our Founder

A number of folks have contacted me asking if my son David won election to the Porter Township Board.  Many of you saw the article that ran in the Post-Tribune prior to the election.  It was front page news in the Porter County edition of the Post, but buried in the Lake County edition.  I was pretty angry about the Lake County edition which cleverly abbreviated the article precisely at the point where I’m quoted that I would not vote for David; they also misspelled his name.  For the record… for our Lake County readers, my quote pertained to not voting for him for Trustee.   Dave ran for the Township Board  and I considered it a privilege to vote for him.  I wasn’t sure if some wise guy at the Post did it because David was 18, or because he was a Republican, or because he lived in Porter County, or because I’m his Dad, or because they could, but I did not think it was cute or clever.  One thing is for absolute certain… no one I talked to thought is was an accident.  What a difference a County makes… and an edition of the Post.  I shall reiterate my now famous comment; one region? one vision? HOW ABOUT ONE EDITION OF THE NEWSPAPER!  If we’re all reading a parochialized, localized, version of the news, it is no wonder we’re not on the same page in terms of a regional view and regional priorities.

Yes!  David won.  While he received the highest number of votes in the Republican primary, he was the 3^rd highest in the general election, but far and away enough votes to secure the 3^rd of the 3 seats on the Board.  David’s term is 4 years and he receives a staggering $ 1,000.00 per year stipend for his service (a far cry from the 5 figure annual  stipend Township Board Members receive in some Lake County Townships).  My term as Trustee expires at precisely the moment Dave’s begins on the Township Board.

I am so proud of David.  In one respect he is very much like his dad.  He embraces life.  He’s independent and adventurous… and at 18, ready to strike out and forge his own path.  For the whole world to know; other than help David out with his 8 yard signs and coach him through filling out the required election forms, Dave did this one all by himself.  Certainly, familiarity with our last name went along way.  And my record of public service certainly did not hurt.  But at the end of the day, David had to earn the votes himself and he did.  I welcomed the support of family and friends and was touched by the enthusiastic encouragement.  One guy whom I’d never met came up to me at the LOFS Clubhouse saying, “hey, you Dave’s dad?  Good for him, I hope he wins, we need to get young people involved…hell they can’t screw it up any more than the lifers do.”  I registered my response, “if we can put an M-16 in their hands and send them off to foreign lands to make life and death decisions in defense of our country, then we’d better be willing to offer them the reins of power in elected office.”  I MEAN THAT!

I congratulate my son David and hope he will find public service as rewarding as I did.  And that he will take a page from his dad’s playbook and know when to pass the torch.  Elected office was never intended to be gainful employment.

As a community and as a society, we are judged by how well we prepare the next generation of leaders and how willing we are to enthusiastically hand over the reins of power through an orderly, seamless transition of authority.

We proved it can be done in Porter Township.  Whose next?