LET US CHOOSE!
I have been a voter in three states now: California,
Iowa, and New
York. I’ve lived in Rochester
for 15 years. Let me tell you, New York
politics are sometimes nuttier than California’s.
City Court candidate Debra Crowder announces she is
withdrawing from the Democratic race “in the interest of party unity” at
the urging of Monroe County Democratic Party Chair Joe Morelle.
Morelle plans to ask mayoral
candidates Bob Duffy and Tim Mains to withdraw their candidacies, also “in
the interest of party unity.”
And of course we all know that whoever wins the Democratic
primary has about a 99.9 percent chance of becoming Rochester’s
next mayor.
The Monroe County Democratic Party has anointed City
Councilmember Wade Norwood as its candidate for Rochester
mayor. This anointing was done without any input from voters. I guess that only
certain members of the Democratic Party (exactly how they get chosen is a
mystery to me), rather than the voters, are supposed to decide who will be our
next mayor.
Don’t get me wrong. Wade Norwood may in fact be the best
candidate for mayor. I don’t know. I don’t know enough about his ideas for Rochester.
I don’t know enough about any of the candidates’ ideas for Rochester.
I have a completely open mind at this point, and I am ready to allow the
candidates to define themselves through a primary campaign.
That’s what primary campaigns are for: to help members of
the party decide who is best suited for the office for which they are running.
It’s not about divisiveness — unless the candidates make
it so in their campaigns. We do not need to end up with a divided party just
because we have a three-way primary.
Morelle may think he is doing the
best for the Monroe County Democratic Party, but quite frankly this effort to
take choice away from the voters gives him a black mark in my book. It upsets
me that he would rather not give me a chance to decide which candidate is the
best.
Having the party — as opposed to the voters — choose who
will be the next Rochester mayor is
undemocratic. Instead of asking the non-anointed candidates to drop out,
Morelle should expend his energies making sure they run positive campaigns
rather than smearing each other.
That’s how you accomplish party unity. Not by eliminating
choice.
Georgia NeSmith, North Union Street, Rochester
ADDRESS THE CAUSES
As a 35-plus-year southeast city resident, I have been opposed
to the Rochester Police Department’s reorganization. As much as I agree that
certain areas of the city are in need of increased police services, I fear the
backlash that will result from removing police presence from other sections.
Now that our city’s reactive resources are drained, would it
hurt to reevaluate whether all crime-prevention and early-intervention options
have been exhausted? Has the root of the growing violence and illegal activity
problems been determined? Have the risk factors for violence been studied? What
are the violent indicators that can be addressed before a crime is committed,
therefore decreasing the demand for more police officer intervention?
The increasing pattern of violent conduct seems to be the
result of an increase in conflict and stress as conflict resolution and stress
coping skills are deteriorating. What’s being done to increase the availability
of socially acceptable problem-solving options in order to decrease the
reliance on aggressive means to solve life’s problems?
I call upon all public and private support systems
throughout the city to reach out to people at high risk for criminal behavior
and help them foresee and change and cope with the triggering mechanisms that
can result in antisocial behaviors. Let’s spend less energy criticizing former
Chief Duffy for making changes in the only area of the crime cycle he has
control over (response) and spend more energy making changes in the areas of
the crime cycle that we have access to (prevention).
How hard can it be to, at minimum, model socially acceptable
behavior in our communities, families, schools, businesses, health-care system,
outreach programs, government, and media? There’s definitely room for
improvement.
Colleen M. Charvella,
Cobbs Hill
Drive, Rochester
WRITING TO CITY
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North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.
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This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2005.
