For the past 50-plus years now we have heard it preached how local and state governments need to be racially and gender balanced. I think we can all agree that they really should be. It can be a very good thing for any city to be that way and it shows modern day thinking, especially when the better candidates are elected.
We can also agree that having a united team and a good leader should always result in many good accomplishments. On the other hand — not good — when they aren’t racially and gender balanced and divided. Naturally it makes things even worse when there are one or two headline-seeking troublemakers on the team.
Needless to say, our city government has been racially unbalanced for years now plus it hasn’t had a woman on the council in many years as well and as far as I know it’s never had a woman mayor.
The recent promotion of our Ward 5 councilman to the Legislature is not only a great opportunity for him, it’s also giving us a chance to change the line up of our team. This is a perfect time to update our council and make it way more diverse by electing our first woman, Marthalie Porter, to the Ward 5 council seat. This is a great way to show the world how up-to-date Columbus can be. Then at our regular city election cycle, which is next year, we can elect a more level-headed and mature candidate from Ward 4 to the team.
So let us put first things first and elect Marthalie Porter on Feb. 16th to fill our Ward 5 Council seat. It’s now or never, folks.
Marthalie is the daughter of the late Jack Miller.
Raymond Gross
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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