Be a Representative

    I believe that holding an elected position comes with the responsibility to understand myself as a vessel of the community's ideas.  Of course, I am me, and not a completely empty vessel which is why I aim to be transparent with who I am and how I think about decisions.

    In Neenah, we want our community to be safe, and clean, with successful businesses and affordable pleasant residences¹.  As a school board member, I feel responsible for contributing to those goals:  our school district is the engine for developing the literacy and skills required of tomorrow's adults to steward our values.  

    Today I canvassed a few homes with my Old English Sheepdog, ClairB.A.i.R. I set out hoping for conversations—real ones. I wanted to ask people what a great school district looks like to them. I wanted to talk about ideals, and how our district measures up to them. Mostly, I wanted to hear someone’s perspective on the world and carry it with me—to sit with it, turn it over, and knead it in my mind tonight.

    But I don’t think that’s what came across.

    Instead, I suspect I felt like an awkward salesperson, unsure of his pitch and fumbling for the right words.

    At one home, an honest gentleman answered the door. He glanced at ClairB.A.i.R. with what looked like a hint of concern. I assured him she’s friendly, then explained who I was and why I was knocking. I asked if he planned to vote on April 7. He said he would—if he remembered. I offered to stop by and remind him, since I live nearby. He mentioned he doesn’t have children in the district. I replied that he still supports it through his taxes and asked if he knew where those taxes go. “The schools,” he said.

It felt a bit strained. Perhaps it felt that way to him, too. We stood there looking directly at one another, and I realized I hadn’t quite opened the space for the kind of conversation I’d hoped for. So I told him that if he wanted to know more about me or the election, he could read about it here on this blog, and I handed him some literature with a QR code.

    At another house, a woman seemed eager to conclude the interaction before it began. She said she would learn about the the candidates online and declined my literature.  I wish I had been quicker on my feet, able to say something light but sincere like, “That’s fair—but you could learn whatever you’d like to know about this candidate right here on your doorstep.” Instead, I simply thanked her for her time and wished her a pleasant evening.    I plan to rethink how I present myself at people's doorsteps to be more conducive to getting them to open up about what they would like to see in the world.

    These moments weren’t failures so much as lessons. I need to rethink how I introduce myself at people’s doors—how to make it less about a pitch and more about an invitation. If I truly want to understand what my neighbors hope to see in the world, I need to create space for them to say it.

1.  Are there other ideals you have about our community that I should know about?  Tell me.