While my wife, Reba, and I were traveling through the McAfee and Vernon sections of our township on our way home from church today, we noticed that several of the Burrell for Mayor signs had been removed. This was very disheartening.
I am well aware of the fact that it has long been a common election tactic in Vernon to steal, remove and/or destroy your opponent’s campaign signs; but it has also been a long common tactic that we have done other counter-productive and sometimes destructive political things here in our town, and I believe that it’s time that we stopped.
I know that in these times when our nation is so divided - especially politically - that many may believe that it’s a waste of time to ask people to come together and think and behave as good citizens and not simply as a member of a specific group or tribe; but I am doing it anyway.
As I said in a recent post on the Burrell for Mayor Facebook page, my wife Reba and I recently went into New York City with a bus load of friends from Vernon and other towns in Sussex County to see the Broadway play "To Kill A Mockingbird". The play ends with the teenage character Scout Finch, daughter of the key attorney in the play, Atticus Finch, shouting the words "All Rise". These words are a call for all of us to "rise" to the level of the better angels and the better citizens that reside deep inside of each of us.
As idealistic as it may sound to some, I actually try to live my life in a way that reflects a commitment on my part to "rise" to the level of my own better angels and my own better thoughts and behavior as a citizen.
We need a new and more positive governmental attitude; our government needs to stop all of the harsh, negative personality fights at our town council meetings and on social media forums. And I am hereby asking all of the other candidates in this election to start now by joining me in a commitment to set a new, more positive, more civic minded tone and standard of behavior in our town; I am hereby asking all of the other candidates in this election to start now by joining me in condemning this practice of stealing, removing and/or destroying opponent’s campaign signs, and by letting their supporters know that they don’t approve of them doing this on their behalf.
There is no reason why we should wait until some of us are elected; we need to start the process of Moving Vernon Forward now.
Howard L. Burrell
Candidate for Mayor of Vernon Township