Political Representation and Leadership for a Vibrant Culture and a Thriving Economy in Venango County

Submitted by Anon.

Elected officials, public servants, should be working to promote the interests, protect the rights, and address the needs of ALL of their constituents.

They are, after all, employed by ALL of the taxpayers of their respective jurisdictions.

A quick glance at the Project Vote Smart web site, however, raises some questions about whether or not all of the citizens of Venango County are being served by those elected to represent them in Harrisburg.

For one thing, both State Rep. Scott Hutchinson (R-PA64) and State Sen. Mary Jo White (R-PA21), are on record as opposing proposed legislation to add the protected classes of "sexual orientation and gender identity or expression" to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.

For another, both Rep. Hutchinson and Sen. White are on record as supporting a proposed discriminatory constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions, and could eliminate benefits that unmarried couples currently have in Pennsylvania.

Project Vote Smart, as a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on public officials in the U.S., also administers something called the Political Courage Test, aimed at making the views of all candidates for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative offices known to constituents and potential voters.

The issues included in the Political Courage Test are those that are both consistently the top concerns of the American people and also likely to come up in the next legislative session.

According to Project Vote Smart, “Rep. Scott Hutchinson and Sen. Mary Jo White repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff.”

As growing numbers of Venango County’s hard-working, taxpaying, overlooked, excluded, and/or underrepresented individuals and communities are beginning to find our voice(s), perhaps it would be good for us to take a harder look at how our contributions are recognized and how our interests and concerns are considered and addressed by our elected representatives.

Perhaps it is time for us to become better organized and to participate more fully and intentionally in the political process that helps to shape the communities, and the world, in which we live.

Perhaps the emergence of true political participation, representation and leadership, in the interest of fairness and equality for all, will also bring about the death of a blog known as EBinVC (End Bigotry in Venango County) and the birth of a new effort known as VCEB, a Venango County in which Everyone Belongs!

But, as Frederick Douglass once said: "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."