Local elections, full speed ahead

With the April elections on the horizon, we thought a reminder is in order for readers and candidates on how to submit letters and One Views to our Viewpoints section. We are proud of our tradition of publishing so many election letters. But we also need to have some guidelines so all views are represented.

As is our usual practice, we allow each candidate one essay, no longer than 500 words, to introduce themselves to the readers/voters. We strongly encourage not waiting till the last two weeks before the election to submit because an avalanche of letters and One Views means we will likely not have space to include them all.

Letter writers should also not submit multiple letters in support of a single candidate as we try hard to get as many different voices into our section. And election letters should not be more than 250 words.

If, in spite of everyone’s best intentions, we receive too many submissions at the end for the space allotted, we will publish a sampling in print and the remainder online

We ask that all submissions focus on the strengths of your preferred candidates and not perceived weaknesses of their opponents. The more civil the tone, the more likely it will be published

Any questions, email Ken Trainor, Viewpoints Editor, at ktrainor@ wjinc.com.

February 14 is the day we designate for romance — in the same month we honor two presidents and African American history. At other times of the year, we designate a day to be thankful, days to honor mothers and fathers, and days to remember those who served and/or died in the military.

On each occasion, someone always says we should do all this thanking and remembering and honoring all-yearround. Which is true, but what about romance? Should we be romantic yearround?

Does everyone have a Romantic hidden within? If so, what kind of shape is it in? Disillusioned, depressed, in despair? Merely deflated or dozing?

Do you keep your Romantic under house arrest, monitor firmly attached, alarm bells set of f every time it starts getting restless and making a ruckus?

Some of us are Romantics by proxy. We follow mercurial, roller-coaster, celebrity relationships or watch virtual romance on our screens, making us voyeurs to romance — or something resembling romance — gently stir ring the faded embers of our own deeply buried Romantic.

Much of the activity this Valentine’s Day falls into the “romance lite” category. We may dress up, go to a restaurant, send cards or flowers, even an old-fashioned love letter — all good, but not necessarily satisfying to the Romantic soul.

A day designated for romance, in fact, can be a bothersome reminder of how far short we fall. Mar riage isn’t especially conducive to romance. Not that there aren’t exceptions, flaming Romantics in conjug al blissdom who rise to every available occasion. Incurable Romantics, we call them. Some are sophisticated, some are graceless, some goofy, but it’s not the technique so much as the ef fort and the intent that charm. If your Romantic stages a jail break just once a year, it may be out of shape, rusty, or even malnourished. Romance takes practice.

We usually associate romance with sex, but there is more to being a Romantic than physical intimacy, just as there is more to being a person than being a Romantic. My midlife awakening began when I star ted hearing my starved Romantic down deep in the dungeon of my self, rattling the bars of the cage and demanding to be set free. The Realist and the Idealist — two other significant voices from my inner self — tried to muffle it but to no avail. Once you hear that voice, there is no containing the energ y, what Walt Whitman described as “pent-up aching rivers.”

From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day; From nati ve moments — from bashful pains — singing them;