Thanks To All

[Nancy Holmes <ncmholmes@moscow.com>]

							November 2, 1999
Dear Visionaries;

Now that the election is over I will share more of my reasons for
campaigning for city council.

  1) To insure there was a contest. This means candidates must say
something. Perhaps even think before saying. Perhaps even debate.

  2) More candidates mean more viewpoints or at least more nuances on
familiar viewpoints. Then the election serves as a giant survey as voters
respond to these viewpoints. This allows me to better judge whether Moscow
is a "to", "from" or "shifting" community. I wanted to know.

  3) Yields the spotlight in a legitimate way to air a couple of my primary
concerns:

a) There needs to be a better system of information exchange, adoption and
diffusion between the local government and the residents, especially those
residents not enrolled in the usual power clubs.
b) There must be a limit to acceptable growth and development. For each
individual the threshold of unacceptability is different but that doesn't
mean it is too early to start talking about what we can do to define and
establish limits. It is okay to build the machinery before you have to use
it. Believe me, we'll miss Moscow when it is gone.

  4) To see how well I could do while avoiding some prevalent campaigning
practices. 		Namely:
a) Posting signs. An advanced form of littering as I see it.
b) Asking for contributions.
c) Going door-to-door to convince strangers you are their type of guy even
though you don't really know what their type of guy might be.


Based on the reasoning given above, I am satisfied with the results.
Furthermore, I enjoyed two unexpected bonuses:

	a) Increased role for Vision2020 as a community forum.
	b) Reexperiencing the joy of writing. The election gives an
automatic readership.

Alas! I also have two regrets. First, I thought a real contest might cause
greater voter turnout. With only 22% of voters going to the poll even the
winners can't say they've received a mandate from the people - merely the
results of a scientifically invalid survey. Second, I didn't get a chance
to drop an ice cube in Mike Curley's boxer shorts.

Thanks to all of you for your valuable time and attention. Thanks to a few
of you for your votes. Now, the spotlight no longer shines this direction.

							- Evan Holmes