The Journey is the Destination

Oh what a week!

So I had to ask myself all sorts of questions this week, ones I didn't know the answers to -

I lost the election by one vote. But actually, it was a tie (168 votes and a perfect tie, how is that even possible?!) and then, one vote was discounted, correctly, and so technically I then lost. But the vote counters then worried that other votes may have also been filled out incorrectly, and discovered that due process had not been carried out.

And the question arose - was it a valid election. And I suppose the clear answer was - no, it was not. But my question was, did it matter? I lost by a vote, should I/could I be gracious and just bow out? I said to myself, yes, of course I should, I lost.

But lots of parents, especially those who are lawyers, were really upset. The process matters. There was talk about Florida and Bush and Gore (and I kept saying, guys, it's just the PTA!) but then I began to think, the journey is the destination, and what is the journey here. If I removed myself from the picture, if this was another school I was reading about, what would I think? I so didn't want to be the crazy PTA lady who doesn't win and then demands a new vote. I mean, who would want to be her?!

But on the other hand, if we get to a good end by bad means, does that matter? and I thought to myself, yes, actually, it does matter. The destination is not all, how we get to it makes a difference. And people were genuinely upset that the process had not been done correctly.

Democracy is precious, people are dying in Iraq over that. And votes are precious things, if they are not counted or filled correctly, then doubt sets in. Look at what Mugabe is doing, such a corruption, it hurts to hear about it. And I guess all the well educated and well informed parents were reacting against all this news, and were saying 'not on my watch' - where they can control events, then elections will be carried out clearly and cleanly, with due process, and as transparently as possible.

In the end, it all comes down to the benefit and education of the children, which is what our PTA mission is - and what does it teach the children if we allow fudged elections to go through? So I sighed and bit a very large bullet, and had more meetings than I can count, and finally, we declared the election void. A new one will take place in September.

The only way I could square it was if I removed myself from the process. I thought, if I don't run in the next election, what would I want to happen, and then I thought what are we teaching the kids. This is the most basic of civics lessons, but it's also the most basic lesson all all - humans make errors, now what do you do? Real, adult grown ups acknowledge the error, apologize, and then make it right. And that's a very good lesson for the kids to learn...