Each new day holds opportunity.

Today is a new day in which we set our clocks back one hour.

For some, this new day comes with an extra hour of sleep and that’s good enough.

For others, this new day will bring ways for us meet challenges. Eleanor Roosevelt once said “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

Our community officials meet every day with new challenges. Some have shown themselves to be more prepared for these challenges. Some have buckled to the pressure of these challenges. Some respond in ways we support and others in ways we disagree with. Some vote the way we want and others surprise us by their vote or lack thereof.

When our elected officials impress us with their leadership or gain our approval with their actions, we have an opportunity to thank them. They are each reachable by phone, by email, and are, in one way or another, our neighbors. Too often, silence from the masses serves as approval.

(This is true by the way for not just our elected officials but our bosses, employees, teachers, coaches, spouses, children, friends, and acquaintances - we have become much more comfortable shouting insults from the keyboard than saying a simple thank you.)

When our elected officials disappoint us, we have an opportunity to make a change.

Election day is a day we as voters can change the tides or keep the momentum going. Election Day is a day that holds new opportunities for whomever comes out on top. It is a day full of new strength and new thoughts for whomever wins as well as for the community.

We at the Covington News receive a lot of letters, posts, and comments about mistakes made by our local elected officials. We hear a lot about the ways they disappoint us and what they should really be doing.

If the negative attention paid to local news is correlated to the turnout for local elections, we would see record voter turnout this year and every year henceforth.

Sadly, trends have shown us otherwise.

We see only 3 in 100 voters come out to the polls for local elections. Frankly, we get more posts on misspelled words in an article than voters for the local election.

That is a troublesome trend.

It seems that we like to talk about change but it seems we don’t really believe in the new strength and new thought that each day holds. Otherwise, we would make each day count, including Election Day.

In whatever way we can, we should meet each new day with new strength and new thought to meet the challenges of this world, this community.

Otherwise, we should quit complaining.

Or the Board of Elections should start handing out little “I didn’t Vote” stickers so we could tell who was who on Election Day.