In the
interest of transparency I don't live in Ogden so I can't vote for Luis Lopez
in the upcoming election. I pastor a
church (that he does not attend so there's no bias there) and as a pastor I can't
tell you how to vote, but as an American citizen I am entitled to an opinion.
And I have one.
I met Luis at a meeting a few months ago and
he seemed like a nice guy. I attended the Ogden Hispanic Festival last week and
saw Luis playing tug-of-war with a puppy. He likes dogs, so that's another
point in his favor. And by the way, the puppy was an adult dog from the K-9
unit of the Ogden Police Department, and Luis was the rope. He volunteered to
be the "perp" for a demonstration.
I like that about him too.
But none of those things really
qualify someone for public office. They're bonus points.
So I sat down with Luis to discuss
why I should (if I could) vote for him.
And I walked away impressed. There's a lot of stuff on his interwebs
page (http://luislopezforcitycouncil.org) but I wanted to approach things from
a different direction. You see I don't think that the 'city' can solve some of the problems facing Ogden
(or Anytown USA)by itself. No
ordinances or codes are going to force people to get along. The city can't pass
a law that ensures that fatherless children
get 'fathered'.
The City Council or the Mayor's
office can propose, suggest, endorse, advocate programs to ensure that at risk
kids have opportunities to succeed, but the solution involves more than a
handful of elected officials could ever hope to manage. And Luis has some great
ideas for bringing members of the community together to explore ways to help
without hurting.
Diversity matters. Diversity is
here. And Luis and I agree that diversity should be embraced. There is such
richness to be found in other cultures, not to mention all the food experiences
that we miss when we live with a 'we
versus them' mentality. (Read the gospels: a lot of Jesus' activities
included food--it draws people together.) Lopez wants to reach across the lines
that divide us so that we do live as one community.
I was especially impressed with his
commitment to family -- his own and families in the community. He is passionate about helping and serving people in the community. Education is
important. Providing opportunities and letting people know that they matter and
that someone cares are high on his list of priorities.
And I asked about a touchy subject:
can the city and local churches work together for the good of OUR community, how can we partner? And his answer was that we need to be in
conversation about issues, we need to work together, we need to avail ourselves
of each others strengths. And of course
when you bring up religion, it opens the door for a totally different
discussion. How do you balance one
groups right to display their religious conviction with another group's right
to disagree and be offended? I was impressed, not because of his answer, but
because he didn't have an answer. No one size fits all solution, rather he has a
willingness to listen to others, and a support for people to worship in the
various ways that people do.
We also talked about immigration and
refugees. This is something else for which there are no easy answers. I would like to see refugees resettled to
Ogden. For that to happen there has to
be housing, job opportunities and reliable transportation. My blunt question
was would you not only support resettling refugees here, but would you actively
pursue making it happen. The answer was
not the one I hoped for, but one that I respected: 'in principle it sounds
good, but I need to know a lot more about it before committing.'
I
left our meeting impressed, and more than that, I left feeling like we have formed
a friendship. If I could vote for Luis
Lopez, I would. If pastors could tell their flocks how to vote, you guessed it, I would.
I can't do either of those things, but as a member of the Ogden
community I can encourage you to vote,
and if you are a registered voter in Ogden City, when you go to the polls, I
encourage you to put your 'X' next to the name Luis Lopez for council member at large.
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