“We Must Be the Change We Wish to See” – Mahatma Gandhi

Imagine if in 1787, when the delegates convened to frame our constitution, the framers had compared our newborn country to countries around the world and did not deviate from the forms of government the others had. Imagine if they were not bold enough to create a vision of true democracy that the world had never seen. And imagine if they had been too worried about giving more power to the people and instead chose to keep that power with the ruling class like the other countries did at that time.

Fortunately for us, the framers were visionary, did not align with vested interests in protecting political parties or the ruling gentry, and demanded that people have more power.

Unfortunately for us in Holmdel now, the vested interests are preaching the opposite of what our founding fathers did by comparing Holmdel with towns in our county and asking: if they don’t have it, why should we?

By associating us with towns that have our current form of government, they are denying us the right to have more power over our government than we currently have.

Because

• Directly electing your Mayor IS more power to the people
• The Initative & Referendum GIVES more power to the people on ANY township matter
• Non-partisan elections ALLOW more people to participate in our government

If a true democratic form of government is “of the people, by the people and for the people” as Abraham Lincoln said, then this proposed form of government moves us a lot closer to this ideal.

Towns big and small, towns with high per capita income like ours and towns with similar population density have all adopted this form of government. In fact, scores of towns in New Jersey have moved to this form simply to give more power to the people.

It is preposterous to think that adopting this form of government will turn Holmdel into Newark, Jersey City or Hoboken. It is absurd to correlate crime in big cities with Holmdel. It is deceiving when they claim that a system like we have now that allows a cabal to elect the mayor provides more power to the people. There is zero correlation with the proposed form of government to property values or crime.

So, the question in front of us is simple. Do we really want more power to the people or are we satisfied with delegating the power to the political parties?

The answer is obvious that no statistic can deny. The answer is obvious if you are not part of the political machine afraid of empowering people.

We must be that change we wish to see in Holmdel. Will you?

Vote ‘YES’ on July 26.

Prakash Santhana

Deputy Mayor

Holmdel Township