Dear Editor,
Except for the first municipal term, which was kind of a honeymoon, Bowen’s political climate has been somewhat bifurcated. There has been the “whoa! Let’s not change too quickly, if at all” branch and there has been the “surely we can move forward, I mean change is normal” branch.
Over time the polarization devolved into Heron Huggers (HH) and Evil Developers (ED). This divisiveness caused great consternation among the natives, who in many cases felt that this dualism had led to a sort of political constipation. It turned out that this was not the whole spectrum of native feelings, as was clearly demonstrated, when The Artist With No Fear of Scale (TAWNFOS) threw his hat into the mayoralty ring.
Clearly the HH and ED camps held equal sway, but only among two thirds of the voters. However, when TAWNFOS came along and rattled our cages, he pointed out that we were strangling each other and there was a transcendent possibility. And lo, one third of the populace removed the scales from their eyes and agreed with their votes.
Even mayor of the moment in his acceptance blog said:
The very high level of support he (referring to TAWNFOS) received reminds us that there are a lot of islanders (the third with cajones) hungry for a new style of politics and a more dynamic approach to our challenges. The lesson is not lost on me.
Hopefully there’s some truthiness in what he typeth!
Governing a large county is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.
---Lao Tzu
Sincerely,
Richard Best
