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Loving To Hate Erickson? 
OK, But What Would You Have Done?

     I have been requested to discuss my experiences as a Berwyn elected official during my brief tenure (2005-2009) as an Alderman.  There will be, undoubtedly, numerous opportunities to share my experiences with you over the next several months.  But as a down-payment on this request, I will say the following. 

    I have no interest in politics.  I don't trust politicians.  You shouldn't either.

    During my brief tenure as an elected official, I earned the undying hatred of every politician on both sides of the political isle.  I wear their hatred as a badge of honor.  It is evidence that I was acting on your behalf and not their behalf.

    I have no interest in popularity contests.  I am not seeking the Mr. Congeniality title. 
Very few of you have any clue as to why I got involved in politics, so I'd like to pose a question for all of you "Erickson haters" out there.
        If you had been asked, unexpectedly, to get involved in politics for the purpose of being part of a government that would "change" the Berwyn political culture forever;

    If you had agreed to set aside your personal life for several months to campaign on the promise of real and permanent change in the way the city was governed;

    If you had taken several months out of your life to ring every doorbell in your ward to introduce yourself and pass out home-made literature (not just once but 4 or 5 times at every doorbell) promising vast positive changes in the way the city was managed;

    If you had  made promises to people about what kind of open, honest and transparent government you were going to demand if elected;

    If you had spent several months assuring the residents time and time again that you would not let them down;  that you would not sell them out;  that you would be different; that they could trust you, that you would stand up for them; that you would not tolerate the corruption and patronage and all of those things that accompany the type of arrogant and self serving city government to which they had long become accustomed;

    Had you done and said all of these things and, based on your assurances and promises they decided to trust you and they voted for you because they trusted you;
     What would you have done if, upon winning a seat at the party, you discovered that the campaign had just been a charade, that the party was a masquerade?

    What would you have done as you watched those with whom you ran approve 
wholesale patronage appointments, approve the hiring of campaign contributors and essentially replicate the conduct of those you had just defeated and about whom you had been so critical?

    What would you have done when you realized that the people you had trusted and with whom you had formed a political association had no intention of keeping their promises?
        
Here is what I did.

    I kept my promises.  All of them.  I took a stand.  I made a lot of people angry.  I made a lot of political enemies.   At great personal costs, I was a sole dissenting vote.  

    What would you have done?  What would you have been?

    Now I'm a common man with humble needs and giant dreams.  I can count up
to ten, but after that I have to take off a boot.  I too was fooled by the politicians.

    This website is my attempt to rectify the shortcomings of the politicians who fooled us.  I made promises to you.  The strategy that this website represents is my attempt to make good on those promises.

Joel