If turnout for debate on forest ever reflects turnout for voting

There is rarely ever any reason to make your words soft and sweet about voters.
That is, voters who don’t show up for elections, because you’ll probably never have to eat those words.
But if last week’s City Council meeting is any indication of what to expect April 23, 2019 — Morgantown’s next municipal election — tread softly on our city’s voters.
Matter of fact, we want to compliment all the city’s citizens — pro and con — who attended the Haymaker Forest debate at that meeting.
It was a textbook example of democracy at work when the vast majority of our citizens stand up to their local government.
Some say you cannot fight City Hall, and it’s true most of us will face setbacks, failures or defeats at times in such cases. Often for good reason, because we are wrong or, worse, being headstrong.
But when right and reason — not politics — are in your favor, never give up, accommodate or compromise.
We hope you simply do as we often do and simply say, “Hell, no,” to arrogance, misguided initiatives and conflicts of interest.
We also hope you stand up to even more repugnant wrongs where injustice, hate or cruelty rear their ugly heads these days in our nation.
Though 85 percent of city residents were no-shows in the last council election, many woke up when they read $5 million of their taxes was going to be spent on 40 acres of trees.
And to its credit, the council listened, with the exception of a delusional deputy mayor, who cannot see his obvious conflict of interest for his blind ambition.
We noted last week, this council has sometimes got ahead of itself, but later thought better of it.
Discussions about closing bars early, election changes, applying Home Rule to regulate local roads and buying Haymaker Forest may all be the product of novice council members.
Remember, five of our seven City Council members are only about halfway through their first term. So, missteps are to be expected.
You can almost appreciate their enthusiasm for wanting to make changes and bringing new ideas to the table.
However, their approach for doing so lacks consensus outside their chambers, is often disjointed and raises more questions than answers.
And unfortunately, in the case of the Haymaker Forest proposal, it was preposterous from many angles.
If anything, this episode highlights why voters need to be involved in their government.
No, we are not going to lecture voters, for now, about their duty, their rights or their privilege.
It’s said a good example has twice the value of good advice.
We saw that kind of an example at the City Council meeting last week.