Fowlerville High School Alumni Banquet: A Fading Tradition?

   The Fowlerville High School Alumni Association held its annual banquet on Saturday, June 6. This was the 122^nd gathering of the organization.

   While that longevity would suggest a solid foundation of continuity, organizers fear that this yearly gathering of the school’s former students at one setting may be a fading tradition. A few years back attendance slipped to around 200 alumni and guests. Not a shabby number, yet nowhere near earlier years when an attendance of 300 to 400 was the norm.

   This time around the ticket sales dropped to 123; still a decent turnout, but the trend is going in the wrong direction. The culprit, the officers of the alumni board say, is the younger generation’s lack of interest in the event; a lack of interest that’s been going on for a number of years.

   Most of those present have been out of school for over 40 years.

Elected Officials: Leaders, Servants or Representatives

   On issues we care about—those matters that impact our lives or involve our deeply-held beliefs—not all of the decisions made by  our various governing bodies will be agreeable. Village councils, township boards, school boards, county commissions, the state legislature, and congress will, at one time or another, pass or reject proposals contrary to our preference.

   I cannot speak as an up-close observer on how congress or our Michigan legislature operates. My impression of its inner workings, as is true with most citizens, has been formed by what I read in the newspaper, hear on a radio report, or view on a TV program. On the other hand, I can claim the status of a longtime observer of local governance, based on many years of working as a reporter. From that vantage point, I offer a couple of observations.

    People are elected to a public office with the title of representative, meaning of course that the official makes decisions on our behalf. We elect people to a particular board to conduct the public business on our behalf. Of course we (meaning you and I) are not the only ones casting a vote. An official represents a lot of different people with varying views.

Time Bombs: Governmental choices that have future ill effects

    I call them time bombs, although maybe stink bombs would be a better description.

   They are the choices (either a decision to act or not to act) made by a governing board or other public officials that has had or will have unfortunate consequences. They lie there, awaiting just the right circumstances or the passage of enough years, before exploding. While these bombs are rarely earth-shaking, unlike their real-life counterparts, they can be (like a sink bomb) messy, annoying, and often expensive to fix or remedy.

    They are often the result of choosing the easier path, or putting priority on here-and-now pocketbook considerations, or giving deference to prevailing public opinion.  Sometimes these ill effects are unintended and unforeseen. But too often they are the outcome of deliberate calculation, of picking today’s expediency over tomorrow’s benefit or potential difficulty as well as our all-too-human inclination to get along rather buck the trend. Whatever the motivation, someone—a new set of representatives or officials—somewhere down the road, inherits the problem and has to take care of it. They get to “pay the piper.”