Sedona SCENE – Sedona SOUL
A Sharing With Barbara Mayer
Sedona, AZ (October 30, 2011) – The word “Politics” has become associated with all sorts of sleaziness, underhanded dealing, ego-driven lies and fear-mongering, illegal antics and various kinds of “dirty tricks”. And here I state with some kind of civic pride that I’m originally from Chicago, even though it still carries the reputation of being a city where, on election day, people vote “early and often”. In fact, as editor of my high school newspaper, I once had the honor of a personal interview with Chicago’s original “Hizzoner”, the first Mayor Richard J. Daley himself.
Those were the days. But this is Sedona.
I, like many sister and fellow citizens of our little city, left family and friends – former careers and many areas of my own comfort zone — to come here. Something in me knew I needed to become part of this gentle place of magic and magnificent beauty nestled in one very special valley of Northern Arizona.
This is my home now. And this is my pain now, to watch with a very deep sadness the actual fear-mongering, lies, and personal attacks of character assassination which I thought I had left behind in the less civil and more ignorant world I used to know.
My heart keeps telling me that this is Sedona. This is the gentle place of healing, wholeness, compassion — and a place where people want to serve in government because they desire to be part of that healing, wholeness and compassion. They want to serve in order to help build a new kind of community where less attractive parts of that community can be given a chance to blossom with new vitality and vibrancy, and where people who live here can stroll in pleasant areas as neighbors greeting neighbors, sharing the special ambiance — and where people from all over that world out there can come to visit – just to get even a little taste of what this magical place called Sedona can become.
I write these words over a week before results of the Proposition 410 referendum are revealed. I write them now, however, because I face shoulder surgery in the next few days, and because for an indefinite time to come I won’t have use of the right arm which is working this keyboard right now.
Yet I must bear witness to the ugliness, pettiness, and absolutely illegal actions of some – not all – who have turned the Proposition 410 referendum into a pitiful display of juvenile — and felonious – stealing of signs, breaking of artistic copyright laws, and rampant intimidation of businesses and individual citizens who simply happen not to agree with those who just want to wield their power once again.
This is Sedona. This is not just another distant suburb of Phoenix, and Sedona deserves better. I don’t know at this date what the outcome of the Prop 410 election will be. But I do know that whatever the outcome, there will be other elections in this city – one happening just a few months away, during another magical springtime in this Sedona which I love.
I hope that next election will not again arouse the nastiness and pettiness which has occurred this October. I hope we can all learn to approach the honor of being part of government — and the right to vote without facing intimidation or false pretenses which too many in this country have already given their very lives to protect — with the integrity and the blending of Head and Heart which every true community deserves.
I hope we can all learn to present our ideas for a better Sedona in truth and integrity, rather than with false statements which carry no truth and predictions which come from fantasy rather than fact. I hope we can rise above the despicable antics we have seen in these past few weeks. And I hope each person who resides in this magical place will step up to demand that future elections be ones of true fact and true decency.
As I write this I don’t know which side – Yes on 410 or No on 410 – will gather the most votes. All I know is that the only true winner — or loser — in this referendum is Sedona herself. And that remains to be seen.
And, by the way, if you haven’t voted yet, please do vote now. Be a positive part of the real Sedona you love.
Barbara Mayer is an InterFaith/InterSpiritual minister, author, teacher and poet who resides in Sedona, Arizona.
4 Comments
Very well said. Thank you for being the voice of kindness and honor in our community.
Barbara, beautifull…a joy to read and hopefully some lessons to be learned.
Hope the shoulder surgery went well and the recovery is not to painful.
Ted
Many blessings to you for your surgery. I wish you a speedy recovery.
Here again, Sedona has been lied to, sold a bill of goods, and the taxman will soon have his hands deeper into our pockets. We were told that this was for safety, when we were already safe as long as we were vigilant drivers. This is the nanny state at work. We look to uptown, a pitiful mess after millions of dollars of “improvements.” There was little improvement: the traffic still backs up into the canyon and behind the twin round-abouts, visitors still find the need to jaywalk, and people still stop in the middle of the street looking for parking spots. The round-abouts are a joke, especially the two were 179 dead ends into 89a – right at the “Confusion vortex” as if someone wanted to make a point of it. There was no compromise here. Sedona was blackmailed into accepting lights that were originally purchased for a defunct housing tract in Flagstaff. ADOT looked to Sedona to bail out the State, and we did, which makes me wonder who counted those votes. Things have not changed in the many years I have been here. This is a repeat of Rachel’s Knoll, the Cultural Park and 179. We have no voice at all.
Barbara, After reading your article, I just think you have underestimated the characters you are dealing with.