Columbia DOESN’T Vote

 

On Thursday I stated that the Banner article about Columbia elections missed the biggest reason why Columbia residents don’t vote. I did not anticipate Thursday evenings happenings at the CA Board meeting but they pretty much prove my point. Let’s look back a bit.

The Ugly Truth, April 26, 2014

Columbia in a way, was an experiment.

Well, folks, the experiment has failed. Where James Rouse saw possibilities of a diverse community, the truth is that Columbia is enchained in segregation.

Segregation by age.

(And, furthermore…)

Important decisions about Columbia's present and future are largely being determined by one generation. One angry generation, I might add.

I have heard too many stories of younger residents trying to get involved at the Village level and being scorned, spurned, dismissed, and beaten back by angry "Pioneers". It is no wonder to me that younger residents feel disenfranchised. I have lived here since 1999 and am still treated by some as a newcomer without the right to have a say in my community.

*****

When I ran for the CA Rep position in Oakland Mills, I received support from a variety of folks whose personal experience in trying to engage in Village and CA “politics” had been so unpleasant that they had walked away completely. Every story shared similar elements: people in power who were determined to stay in power, had no intention of sharing power, and would do anything to stay in the inner circle of power. 

They would lie, create conspiracy theories, have secret meetings outside regular board times, spread salacious rumors about their perceived opponents. They planned takeovers. Maintained secret email lists. And, at the time I am describing, most of these folks were retired and had all the time in the world to make this happen. 

If they believed they were “in the right” they moved forward as though the rules in place did not apply to them. (If you think this was only happening in 2014, take a look at what happened in Wilde Lake this past year.)

No one in their right mind wanted to go up against that. In some villages the more prestigious and/or powerful CA Rep positions were passed from one power broker to another without any public input whatsoever.

I spent my time advocating repeatedly for engaging younger people in the process and deliberately creating methods to educate and to share power. Permit me to say that my suggestions were, on the whole, met with resistance.

Now here’s the part where I went wrong: I thought that, over time, these angry folks would age out of the process and make way for a newer generation of community engagement. In some instances I do see that happening. And I do not want to paint everyone with the same brush. There are good people serving and doing good work. But you would not believe how often their efforts are thwarted.

Friends, I did not see this coming: some folks who wanted to be power brokers themselves and who were not repulsed by the toxic Village Board/CA Board dynamic stuck around and learned how to play the game. This is what happens when you drive away the very best your community has to offer. You nurture a new generation of wanna be dictators. 

1. This is why Columbia doesn’t vote. Successive generations of village board and CA Board members don’t want them to vote because that would bring with it the possibility of losing power. Losing control of the Columbia conversation, as it were. Time and again they treat newcomers with suspicion and disrespect.

2. This is also why three members of the CA Board were removed this week. All of the evidence provided to the public bears this out. These members believed that, because they alone were fighting the cause of the righteous, the rules of office did not apply to them.

Let’s not romanticize this by painting them as independent voices who cried out in the wilderness. Public service requires making a commitment to ethical standards and practices. If you don’t fulfill those obligations you should face the consequences of your actions.

So, here we are. The state of affairs we find ourselves in today is a direct result of the folks who didn’t want to let other people play in their sandbox. 

This is no way to run a village, a community, a New American City. Either we engage younger people, attract and nurture more collaborative people, and open our boards to new ideas and ethical approaches to leadership and engagement…

Or?

We die. Columbia as an idea dies if it does not exist in practice. 

It’s great that the Banner wrote about this, really. But the piece they left out is bigger than all the other pieces put together.

Village Green/Town² Comments