Anastasia Endorses A Political Candidate, First Time Ever!

I am now endorsing a political candidate, first time ever!

I can do this because I am separating from New Horizons. On my own, I can be as partisan or non-partisan as I like. Umm. How very strange!

Well, as the Church Lady says, “Isn’t that special.”

Never before have I even considered taking an out and out position on a candidate for political office. 

But now I've done it! And it feels quite strange and wonderfully liberating!

Why me, I ask myself? And, why now?

And, my candidate of choice
is.......

I can't quite put my questions together to get a clear answer. But here is what I did --

Letter to the editor
Frederick News Post 
September 6, 2017

Building A Better Tomorrow, Today 

I am a relative newcomer to Frederick, having previously raised my children and conducted my private psychotherapy practice in Montgomery County. I love Frederick, and have become active in the community as the Executive Director of a nonprofit organization, New Horizons Support Network, Inc., which sponsors the Coffee House Conversations project. 

In this role, I have come to know many of Frederick’s key leaders, and have made a disappointing discovery: there are often contradictions between what many of these leaders say, versus what they do. When I witness incongruity, especially in those whom we have trusted to represent us, I am disturbed. I am even more troubled when the perpetrators are people running for elected office in Frederick County.   

It is because I am so greatly concerned about these incongruities, and because Frederick means so much to me, that I am taking the time to write this letter. Frederick is a community filled with people of high moral values and integrity—and we can do better. We must elect the kind of exceptional leadership that can lift people to their highest aspirations; leaders who embody compassion, vision, and accountability—and who have enough wisdom and experience to govern intelligently. 

The objective of New Horizon’s Coffee House Conversations project is to bring people of diverse backgrounds and cultures together, to cross the chasms that divide them. The main vehicle of the program—creating conversations to help us build a stronger community— allowed me to witness the kind of leadership I value. It was during one of these conversations that I was fortunate enough to cross paths with Roger Wilson, a Frederick leader who exemplifies the qualities I admire most.  

As Frederick grows, and the demographics of our area continue to change, we must all learn how to embrace this change, leaving no group behind, as we make our way through the many other complexities that growth demands. To me, Roger Wilson offers the kind of leadership that can help us build a better Frederick. I hope his efforts to become an Alderman will succeed, and enable him to accomplish even more for our community tomorrow than he’s already doing today.

Will it be published? I have no way of knowing. But it sure felt good in the doing!  

Maybe the bottom line is my belief that, as Helen Keller favored in this line from her friend, Everett Edward Hale –

I am only one,But still I am one.I cannot do everything,But still I can do something;And because I cannot do everything,I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.  

Or maybe it is the belief I have come to hold dear that –

"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men (and women) to do nothing.”

So now I have done something, speaking truth to power, another ideal I have come to hold dear.  

Or maybe, most pointedly, for this time and place, the paragraph below I omitted when I sent in my letter to the editor is what prompts me, now, to come out of my hidey hole in every way possible.

Our country is presently in a mess, with a president residing in the White House, who may be among the worst offenders at attempting to mask lies, self-centeredness, personal aggrandizement and cunning, as charm, consideration for constituents and presidential.

Whatever it is, I am glad I’m doing this! And, I hope you, too, are doing something to help our country, your community and your loved ones build a better tomorrow, today. 

That’s how "tough people get through tough times!

Wishing "my first ever endorsed candidate," Roger Wilson, well at the polls in Frederick, Maryland, Tuesday, September 12!

Roger prompted my first ever endorsement and I add to that my support for Kelly Russell.

Good luck to both!!