Column - Praise for the Candidates

On this blessed day when bickering yields to voting, I offer praise to the office-seekers. By now, they could use it.

No, I didn't hit my head. I'm just putting cynicism on hold for 24 hours.

It takes guts to put your good name on a black and white ballot, where it will be embraced or flatly rejected by your neighbors and members of your church and the people standing in line at the grocery store. It's a very big risk too few people are willing to take in this democratic republic. And frankly, our institutions have suffered for our timidity.

So here's to the candidates, with their desire to help and to serve, mixed with healthy parts of ego and crazy. They've knocked on our doors, grabbed our hands and looked us in the eye, tempting rejection and H1N1. They took tough questions in public forums and gave their views in the open to be picked at and dissected.

Not everything they said was smart, shrewd or even reasonable. But they didn't shout insults from behind a veil of online anonymity, like some of their detractors. They stuck out their real live chins and took punches.

Lord knows I'm rough at times on politicians and officeholders. But never let it be said that I don't respect these folks for getting their hands dirty. And if they respect our expectations that they play it straight, value our tax dollars and keep the faith with our unshakable right to know exactly what they're up to, we'll all get along just fine.

I think most local candidates I've met this fall get that. Regardless of how things turn out, we'll be represented by some serious, committed folks who have good intentions. It will be our job to watch how those intentions survive the realities of governing.

Late tonight, the losers will need consoling. But save a little sympathy for the winners. Their lives will remain or become more complicated.

Until Cedar Rapids City Council District 3 combatants Jerry McGrane and Pat Shey started fighting over their meeting attendance records, I hadn't given much thought to the time commitment of a part-time council member. There are regular meetings, work sessions, brown-bag lunch sessions, briefings and budget meetings. Dozens and dozens of meetings. And that doesn't count all the work in between meetings. Throw in a massive natural disaster, and you've got a job that most people wouldn't want.

But hey, they asked for it, begged for it and campaigned for it. Some of them know full well what they're getting into. Others will find out in a hurry. Before they get what they deserve, they deserve our thanks.

n Contact the writer at (319) 398-8452 or todd.dorman@gazcomm.com