The Daily news
I must admit I dreaded my first Citizen of the Year gathering ... the collection of nominations, taking them to the balloting session, the reception - all of it.
|
Advertisement |
And here in Washington Parish, I've truly come to enjoy the comraderie of the get-togethers and learning more and more about the community and her people.
In Franklinton, where the selection was made Friday afternoon, the process is taken seriously, albeit in a more casual manner than in the Magic City.
On the parish's west side, there was 100 percent participation in the vote a year ago ... which included 12 present and one vote by telephone.
In Bogalusa this year, 22 of the 48 prior recipients gathered to pour over the nominations and make the selection. When you consider that 11 of the prior 48 are deceased and several more have moved away, that's an impressive turnout, too.
In Franklinton, I get to tally the votes ... but in Bogalusa, the ritual is so well established that I'm simply required to bring nominations and paper to the meeting.
Mickey Murphy provides the "official" hat for the ballots and calls them out and John Gallaspy writes them on the tally sheet for all to see.
And not meaning to diminish the activities of anyone who has been selected to receive the honor, we all have the opportunity to be citizen of the year.
You see, the one common denominator I've found as I gone back and read about previous recipients, along with the three six who have been chosen since we arrived in Washington Parish, is that they don't care who gets credit for a job - as long as the job gets done.
I believe in the saying "If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem."
Mom and Dad taught my sister and me that we should work to make a place better when we left it than we we arrived. Simply put, it means get up off your duff and do something.
We can all sit back and complain or we can work to effect change ... and that again means getting up and doing something.
There are so many ways we can effect positive change - from working with kids in the summer to taking the time to pick up trash off the streets.
A week ago Saturday, I had occasion to go downtown and saw trash strewn all over the street in front of AT&T on Columbia and the top off the trash can.
On Monday, that trash was still there.
No, I didn't follow my own admonition and stop to pick it up ... and no one else did, either. It was in front of a couple of businesses all day Saturday and it was there on Monday.
The key to making a difference is in not waiting on someone else to get the job done. It's like taking care of your yard ... when you don't mow the grass, it starts to look bad and all of a sudden, it's out of control.
For my part, it takes as much energy to sit (or stand) and grumble about someone as it does to try and make something good happen. That makes the decision easy.
(John H. Walker is editor and publisher of The Daily News and can be reached at 732-2565 or john.walker@wickcommunications.com)
Comments