Letter | International Drive fiasco example of leaders’ failures
There is only one message I hope we all have painfully absorbed from the continuing and never ending debacle regarding relatively small road project called International Drive. That message is that it can clearly and undisputedly be stated that we are not being competently represented in all levels of our government.
The depressing fact, if you are an informed citizen and regularly follow the activities of our government and their related bureaucracies, these faux pas are not uncommon and have become standard operating procedure for our current group of elected officials. We observe this behavior (and the accompanying weak explanations and excuses) all too frequently in our government and it is far past the time that we exercise our power as voting citizens to correct this problematic situation.
The recent events surrounding the ongoing and perpetual delay of the International Drive road project again highlights the apathy and incompetence of our elected representatives. The fact that a small selfish and misguided group of people, with minimal public support and the requisite financing, can override the vast majority of the public and their best interests.
A salient point highlighted by our U.S. Rep. Tom Rice (July 18 letter to the Sun News) was that these special interests groups have cost citizens and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in meaningless delays to critically required projects. Our present group of elected representatives, after previously experiencing the same issue on other projects, sat idly by without supporting and enacting meaningful revisions to the absurd and ludicrous existing state laws which would correct the obvious inequity.
The point of this letter is to hopefully raise the level of political awareness and encourage all to do what needs to be done, and that is apply a much higher level of scrutiny and performance standards to the people who serve our government. If we actually want to end the incompetence in our elected officials we must remove the under-performing and apparently apathetic incumbents and replace them with people who will actually represent us in all levels of government. Phone calls, letters, emails, petitions, etc. are all appropriate and well-intended to explain your point of view but the demonstrative power we all must embrace is the right we can exercise in the voting booth where we can summarily choose to hire “new management.”
With all of the facts and problems facing us there is only one sensible answer, elect people who will actually represent us and deal with constant stream of the issues we face as every day citizens to improve our lives. It is painfully obvious the current group of leaders are not representing our best interests. Anyone who reads our local newspapers regularly could easily provide a litany of issues and causes (especially in the South Carolina legislature) delayed and ignored, there is not enough time and space in this narrative to delve into that exercise.
I am sure next spring when the process begins to run for office we will be inundated with campaign literature from the incumbents highlighting their accomplishments and all of the reasons we must re-elect them. They will also meet and describe to us their examples of their exemplary performance and how well they represented us during their previous terms.
Well I am not sure on what real substance they base their assertions but I could not be more disappointed in how I am being represented. I am currently and in the future strongly supporting a change in our current political management. To all of the current incumbents: Count my view as “skeptical” based on your actual record not the one fabricated for your campaign literature or for your personal talking points to prospective voters. I plan to vote based on previous performance, not campaign promises which are quickly forgotten once elected.
The writer lives in Conway.
This story was originally published July 26, 2015 at 3:22 AM with the headline "Letter | International Drive fiasco example of leaders’ failures."