Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 October 2003 — Page 2

Page 2 • The MunCie Time"; • October 2, 2003

EDITORIAL

When Nov. 4 comes, voting is ticket to better government

About a month from today, Muncie voters will flock to the polls to elect new City Council members and also to decide whether Republican Mayor Dan Canan will be able to win a record three consecutive 4year terms or will be forced to relinquish the keys to City Hall to Dennis Tyler, a Democratic newcomer. That's one of the key choices that Muncie voters will have to make on Nov. 4. There are numerous issues facing voters in this mayoral election year. They include taxes, whether and how to revitalize Muncie's Southside, whether to rename Broadway as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, annexation, jobs and how to halt the city's declining population. Thursday's City Hall

debate, pitting the incumbent against his challenger, gave voters a chance to see the two men in action and to see what they have to offer. Although the turnout was poor, it was a chance for Tyler and Canan to delineate their differences and to show what each one would do turn the city's economic fortunes around. This was the first debate between the men who want to lead Muncie into the future. We think more debates would be beneficial to those waiting to make up their minds on whom to vote. Unfortunately, it does not seem likely that we will have more. Muncie faces some hard choices. Its economy can hardly be called robust. It has lost factory and other jobs. Its population

continues to decline. Young people, the future leaders of this community, continue to flee to greener pastures. When they go away to college, many choose not to return home to work because the opportunities are not here. The southside of the city is in economic doldrums. It has lost jobs and opportunities, which have migrated to the northside. Can anything be done to reverse this, in addition to the charrette exercise. A robust debate on the city's future and what can be done to turn its fortunes around would be healthy and enlightening to voters still trying to make up their minds. Muncie is also at a racial crossroads. The city's generally complacent African American

LETTER POLICY

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libel. •All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, The Muncie Times, 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. •Unsolicited manuscripts will only be returned if the writer includes a self-addressed, stamped envelope with correct package. -Thank You-

MUNCIE TIMES STAFF

Publisher Bea Moten-Foster Editor John T. Lambkun

Advertising Bea Moten-Foster Layout Patty King Typesetting Maurice Taylor Contributors: T.S. Kumbula, Shante Scott, Geri Rosales, Barbara Namwawa, Maurice Taylor, Charles Gulubane and David Hoelscher

The Muncie Times is published twice monthly at 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. It covers the communities of Anderson, Marion, New Castle, Richmond, and Muncie. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, The Muncie Times, 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. Telephone (765) 741-0037. Fax (765) 741-0040.

community is clamoring to be heard. The community has campaigned for the renaming of Broadway the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Despite the rejection of the move by the Muncie City Council, the issue will not go away. It is seen by some as an example of the insensitivity of the city's white majority to issues of concern to the city's African American minority. Some of them have informally taken to referring to Broadway as MLK Boulevard. Others this is one more example of Muncie's inability to be inclusive and accommodative to the views of its minority population. This is certainly an issue that the city's mayoral candidates ought to address. During its 13-year existence. The Muncie Times has never endorsed candidates for political office. It will not do so now. Instead it urges readers and voters to exercise their right to use the electoral process to make meaningful political change. If we fail to vote then we fail to have an input in the political process and in the selection and election of those who are going to act on our' behalf in

resolving the issues facing the city, from property taxes to diversity and economic development. It is barely 40 years ago that demonstrators in the South had to endure police dog bites, water cannons, police beatings, minor and serious injuries, prison or jail and even death, all because they were demanding the right to register and vote in elections. We will betray them, their suffering and sacrifices if we fail to exercise that right to vote to effect political chance. It is critical, therefore, that on Nov. 4 we should go to the polls and choose our candidates for mayor and city council. Failure to do so is a betrayal to those who suffered so much and sacrificed so much so that we would have that inalienable right to vote. It is also a betrayal to those around the world who are denied the right to freely and fairly choose those whom .hey want to be their representatives in the tiers of gove rnment. Voting is something that we should take seriously and exercise fully and fairly.

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