Why I'm Voting Yes

Hello and welcome to a new-month Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is November 1st.

First off, apologies to my neighbors. Last night was the first Halloween ever in the history of our Wannaska-living years that my children did NOT trick or treat in the neighborhood. For twenty years, you've been able to count on our crew making the rounds. This year, they all had spooky plans with friends elsewhere. I hope your bowls of chocolate bars and Skittles don't go to waste!

This past week, my local school district sent out a notice about a referendum folks can vote on next Tuesday, November 4th. I was aware of the referendum because I had heard an interview with the superintendent on the local radio station the week prior. I was shocked last week that I was hearing about it for the first time with less than two weeks before the vote. “How come I didn’t know about this sooner?”

When the communication went out this week, I saw a similar surprise and dismay at the last-minuteness of the announcement ripple through social media. “How come I didn’t know about this sooner?” 

For me, it was another reminder – another tally mark of evidence – about the importance of a local newspaper. The Warroad Pioneer has been shuttered for 5 1/2 years now, and still, I lament the void it left for a reliable one-stop go-to for community information. My go-to answer to “How come I didn’t know?” is usually: “Because we no longer have a newspaper.” There are no good reasons why I’ve been holding out on subscribing to the Roseau Times-Region to the west or the Northern Light Region to the east, except for a little loyalty and hope that a home paper will re-emerge. I think it’s time I give up the ghost and subscribe.

Once the “How come I didn’t know?” prickle of annoyance was assuaged, I could turn my attention to the school’s ask in this upcoming referendum. In other words, how much does the district want and why?

The school district is asking for $250,000 to keep up with technology.

How much will it cost me? About $50 a year. 

Boom. Done.

I don’t need to delve into deeper specifics or explanations than that to know that I will vote yes.

Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine with long-gone, grown-up children said, “I’ll always vote yes for a school referendum because these kids will be the ones wiping my butt one day when I’m in a nursing home.”

Obviously, that comment left an impression on me because it's how I've viewed school referendums ever since. (Note: I just saw the headlines on similar school referendum articles in both the Roseau Times-Region and Northern Light Region newspapers.)

I want to care about the futures of our children for the very practical reason that they will one day be taking care of me. If we don’t equip our future adults with skills and knowledge – not to mention human dignity and a belief that they bring value to the workplace and our community – we are laying the groundwork for our own demise. Which, distilled down, means this: If we don’t care about them today, they won’t care about us – or for us – tomorrow.

Pontification aside, another very practical reason I will vote yes is because of employee shortages. Not just in our schools - Have you seen the cries of despair for more teachers, paras, cooks, and bus drivers? - but everywhere. I'm seriously surprised every time I walk into Dairy Queen (which isn't often) and it's still open. Or Subway. Or the gas stations. Or (fill in the blank of business of choice.)

Not that this referendum will address labor shortages - it won't - but because voting yes, and actually passing a referendum (Note: my community votes "no" a lot) may boost the morale of our school employees, which could help keep them in their jobs and keep our schools open. Just like Dairy Queen, I'm honestly surprised that the school is still open. People ARE still showing up for their jobs despite the rumbles below the surface. And I'm hugely grateful.

Another reason I will vote yes is that I believe in the competency of the people who have identified the need for the money. I trust their math because they are my neighbors and my friends. They aren't "the school" - a building, a faceless entity, to be scrutinized, scoured, and scorned. They are a group of people. Human beings with faces, and bodies, and hearts, and brains. Thoughts and feelings. They are impacted by the votes we make. If $50 a year is going to make my neighbors and friends get the job done, who am I to quibble?

I'm only an expert in my own life, family, job, and reality. And I fall short at that sometimes.

Another reason is because I’m jealous of what Roseau has. I could be wrong with my facts, but my perception is they do. And because I equate our two communities in my mind, I want what they have. I want the proverbial "more" to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. And if they have a referendum, too? Maybe the Joneses don't have it all and a bag of chips like I thought. (I hope they vote yes there, too.)

On the flip side, I do not want my community to experience the financial struggle of our school district neighbor to the east. Driving through Indus last weekend, I was reminded of their school closing. Can you imagine if Lake of the Woods School closed? The geographic gap between Warroad and….I can’t even tell you what the nearest school to the east of us would be. International Falls? Kelliher?

I shudder at the thought. 

With doomsday spookiness, a Jacob Marley-like voice pervades my conscience: “Don’t let your school district become like them….”

If I were in their district, I'd vote yes. Maybe I should start sending an annual $50 donation to their school district. I'd give up a Dairy Queen dinner and a couple bags of Halloween candy for that.

Can schools accept donations from folks outside their school district? Google tells me yes.

So there's an option to consider if the referendums in Wannaskaland don't pass.

And the last reason - back to the philosophical - is that I'm trying my best to resist getting sucked into the vortex of rhetoric that tempts me to trash my community.

I believe in community. Towns work because each person agrees to do their part – whether that’s as an employee, an employer, or self-employed. So much hangs on goodwill. When we pull away from community and ensconce ourselves in our social circles and interest groups, we leave gaps in our communities. Stuff closes. Programs stop. (It broke my heart to see Potato Day get further whittled down to Potato Afternoon.)

We have to care about our neighbors. (Even if we don't always like them.)

Teachers are our neighbors.

Children are our neighbors. 

I am your neighbor.

You are my neighbor.

I’m voting yes, because I’m voting for YOU.