100 Years From Now

These last elections have touched me in a different way as I looked around me on Election Day. I noticed many people coming and going. All were polite and smiling as they practiced their constitutional right, a right that people died for.

I was asked by a man to write an article and noticed that his brother was my friend. These two brothers were in different political parties and still got along.

I would like to remind people that 100 years from now, nobody will know who I was, or who any of us were. People we don’t know will be living in our homes. As I fix one of my wonderful buildings that was erected in 1877, I ask myself, “Who built this?” I don’t know the answer. I start to repair their work and begin to admire their craftsmanship — an old barn scale that was installed like a work of art. Here I am removing it, because it is no longer useful. Years from now another person will be in my same position doing and asking the same things.

We are all residents and Americans in town, and it is politics that poison us. It’s all about power and nothing else. We seem to have lost the will to do what is best for our community and neighbors, and we must start by acting on what is right and stop saying things that are not true. When we return to this state, we will understand that it is the power of love that is important, not the love of power, and we will all be much better to one another.

Look at how people acted when George at the hardware store started collecting goods to help out our fellow Americans in the south who were hit by disaster. There were no Republicans or Democrats, we were just people doing the right thing.

I ask all elected officials to put country and kindness before power and selfishness. I, for one, will start to plant trees at the new farm I bought knowing that although I will never benefit from their fruit or shade, I will leave a mark for future generations to come. Maybe one day a young person will figure out that all these different kinds of trees all in one spot were not a natural occurrence and will realize that someone in the past did something good for the future.

As we have new elected officials in town we see political posturing: Democrats that are voting with the Republicans to set themselves up for a bigger position in the future. We have a Democratic Party that in some ways act more conservative than the Republicans but paint themselves as liberals. We have the Republican party that prides themselves on the party of the Constitution and yet violates the Constitution at will.

I will run again and again on the premises of doing what is right for the people, even if I am the only one voting for me. Look at what happened in the rest of the state and country this past election. Because people love our democracy, the Democrats won most everywhere…except in Suffield. Why? Because we have allowed the “Repdems,” who value power over principles, continued control of this town. There is only one party in Suffield.

Let’s start being better to each other and to ourselves by working to leave this world a better place for our children and future generations.

Rick Sotil, Editor of the Month