Word: localness
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...years that have elapsed since the last election for City Council members, Cambridge has worked to confront an ongoing achievement gap in its public schools and a continuing discrimination lawsuit involving the city manager, as well as the local fallout of the national economic crisis...
...don’t think this is earth-shattering,” Fry said. “[It] confirms what, anecdotally, people have noted at the local level...
...Local elections like these often get overlooked because they occur during election years that don’t feature marquee presidential or Senate races, but this is a mistake. Local government officials, like a mayor or governor, often have a more direct, immediate impact on everyday life in an area than national officials, and selecting them carefully is therefore of great importance. I, for example, am registered to vote in my hometown of West Windsor, N.J. Unless President Obama reinstates the draft tomorrow, my family’s day-to-day existence won’t change because...
These issues deserve consideration, for many times we don’t realize the influence these local elections have until it’s too late. In 2007, Utah residents used their regional power to veto the Parent Choice in Education Act that had been passed by the Utah legislature and signed by the governor, which if passed into law would have offered private-school scholarships to nearly all public-school students. Similarly, experts thought last year’s proposition to decriminalize marijuana in Massachusetts had no chance of passing, but it was successful, putting the state into Canada...
Ultimately, we should vote in local elections not only because they affect us tremendously, but also because it’s our responsibility as citizens of a democracy. Voting isn’t a once-every-four-years affair; it’s the culmination of a democratic way of life that prioritizes involvement in our government. Only voting in well-publicized elections that generate table chatter indicates that we only vote when it is popular to do so. But elections aren’t like the Olympics or the World Cup, and it’s demeaning...