Editor, The Beacon:
I have just finished listening to the outrage of some of the families in Uvalde, Texas, at their school board meeting, in an attempt to obtain accountability and responsibility from them over the tragic recent shooting there. The board members, in addition to their incompetency, also demonstrated arrogance and indifference toward their constituents.
My impression was that they were more concerned with preserving their own political careers and reputations than the lives of the people they were elected to represent and whose interests were supposedly to be placed above their own.
The same can be said for the elected state officials who were interviewed, from the governor on down to the legislators.
Let this be an important lesson to us all: Be careful of how you vote in the upcoming local elections. Our local officials have more power and influence over our daily lives than the headline-making national positions do.
If nothing else, Uvalde has shown us the importance of choosing our officials and decision-makers not for their politics but for their abilities and competence to do the job. History does not teach us what to do, but rather what not to do, again.
Don Kanfer
DeLand
