Make your voice heard

By Staff
Jonathon Willis
Only two more days until the municipal elections throughout the county.
It has been a long political year throughout our nation and Franklin County has not been spared from any of it.
Our country is in the midst of one of the most unique and polarizing presidential elections in history. It is also one of the most important.
The county went through a long campaign season full of controversial topics throughout county commission races. Fairly or unfairly, residents voted for change and will now have an all-new commission in November.
Many times people believe what they are told, whether that is necessarily true or not. Having an opinion and influence in our style of government requires a clear understanding of the truth.
I hope that before any of us go out Tuesday to vote, we make sure we know all that we can about our candidates.
I hope you have asked them questions to learn what they stand on. It is easy to pick up on tidbits of information about one candidate or the other and to form an opinion.
We live in a great country in which our forefathers established a system of government that gives us the freedom to choose our leaders. Sadly, we don't take advantage of that enough.
City and county elections are much different than our state and national ones.
Very few people in Franklin County have ever sit down face to face with a gubernatorial candidate to learn more about them. Needless to say the number that has done that with presidential candidates is even smaller.
But here, locally, we have the opportunity know our candidates. They are our family, neighbors, church members and co-workers.
There is no reason not to learn about them and their stance on issues.
So Tuesday, we should all go to the polls and vote for the people that will best lead us for the next four years.
We don't need to look for excuses to fuss about our communities and our leaders.
We all need to do our part to maintain the greatest system of government in the world.