Election Day

On November 5th, Stratford voters will be electing our 3rd mayor in 8 years. By my count, we are 0 and 2 in mayoral elections. Our current mayor, in listing his accomplishments, most of which were not facilitated by him and some things that were holdovers from our first mayor who didn’t exactly light up Stratford, although some will say he did, negatively.

In the hand bill for the Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shakespeare Theater this past summer, the first person who was thanked in the handbill was our Mayor for his support of this venture. Did I miss something? Didn’t he lock up the building when Councilman Catalano and a group of “Friends of Shakespeare”, all volunteers, tried to clean up the grounds for this event to take place, which was a total success, and is he claiming that he facilitated this? Oh by the way Mr. Mayor, those grounds belong to all the People of Stratford. And another by the way Mr. Mayor, what exactly DID you accomplish in your years in Hartford for the People of Stratford?

His opponent, who claims he has many years of vast banking experience with Bank of America, but because of a couple (3) of law suits he filed against BOA, which he lost, tells us he can’t disclose any of those pesky suits because he is under a Federal Court Order not to disclose any information about them. How convenient! You’re applying for a job to be Stratfords next CEO for the next 4 years and you don’t have a resume to show us. “Trust me” he says, “I’ll fix all of Stratfords problems”. As Ronald Reagan said, “Trusts but Verify”.

Do both these candidates that by promising Stratford residents “manna from heaven”, having smiling pictures of them and their families in the Stratford Star, and saying all the right things thru the media that the People of Stratford have been waiting 8 years for and haven’t gotten yet, or do they take us for some “mark” and approach us like we’re schmucks trying to buy a used car. Remember two words Stratford, “recall and referendum”.

Remember Stratford Voters, the man we elect, although we did have a chance to nominate and possibly elect a woman will be here for the next 4 years. If we make another mistake, it WILL BE 3 strikes you’re out! A lot of people will be voting for the “lesser of two evils”. Well, unfortunately the lesser of two evils is still evil. The other choice is to bail out and don’t vote at all. After all, “why bother, I don’t like either”, well  let me remind you the Right To Vote is not only a right and a privilege, but a REQUIREMENT of citizenship. How many people have died in the course of our 237 year old history for our Freedom to have “The Vote”? Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Bataan, the Choson Reservoir, Ke Son, Birmingham, Mississippi, and need I go any further.

When you go into your voting booth, you can choose anyone you want to vote for or the way to say “NONE OF THE ABOVE” is DON’T FILL IN THE BOX. You have then fulfilled your duty to those above but you have also made a personal statement that you are not happy with your choices. After the election we can find out from the Town Clerks Office, under Freedom of Information, how many people voted for mayor and how many people had voted? You can then determine how many people had voted for either of these two candidates in total, and if it’s less than 30% of the electorate we have a big problem in Stratford. And what you see is what you get. Do the right thing Stratford, don’t vote your Party, and don’t vote your heart, but vote your head and either vote or don’t vote for your next mayor. God Bless America, and God Bless Stratford and its entire People, 06614 and 06615.

M.H. Griffin ( Historian)