Kontos Column: Breathe in, breathe out, and carry on

By Dan Kontos

The frantic pace of the end-of-year holiday season is upon us, for sure. I see it every day. People rush here, rush there, and rush everywhere in between. They rush to buy gifts, they rush to clean the house for guests, they rush to cook lavish meals, and they rush to travel in, lately, awful weather just to be with friends and family.

If you are like me, the best part of the holidays is when they are over. When we have a chance to relax, recoup a bit, and take stock. A chance to breathe.

That respite won’t last very long, as for those of us who pay attention, it’s almost time to head back to the polls. The spring non-partisan election will be coming up soon, April 4 to be precise, and there are some major offices of interest that will be on the ballot. These include several local elected officials and one state supreme court justice.

Right before that, on Feb. 21, will be the spring primary election. Not only will the City of Stevens Point have its primary, but the number of candidates for the high court will also need to be dwindled down as well.

You can practically hear the groaning as you read this. Am I right? Who wants to think of elections as we sit here, right in the eye of the storm of this current holiday season?

Breathe in, breathe out. It’ll be okay.

The truth is that some of these consequential choices by voters will have lasting impacts on our community, and our state. It is important. While this may not be at the top of our lists right now, as you read this, nomination papers are already out for signatures and due back by Jan. 3. That’s just right around the corner.

Never fear, the Metro Wire will be here to help. With our army of opinion writers (he says sarcastically), open letter authors, and even actual local news articles written by genuine journalists, we will help you distill down what you need to know before we hit the polls in less than two months.

For now, just breathe. We’ve got this.

You may not be paying a lot of attention right now, and that’s perfectly understandable, but we can’t abdicate our responsibilities to set the tone for our government. In a constitutional republic like ours, we are the sovereigns and have a duty to make our community what we want it to be.

That’s why we’ll be here to help.

Thanks for all the great feedback and help in 2022. I hope that we can keep it up starting right after the New Year. I’ll be here, and I hope you will be, too.

So, with that, let’s meet in the opinion section to talk about all of it, boldly, honestly, and with a
healthy respect for each other. Until then, God bless.