We’re pleasantly surprised to see Protect Morgantown’s efforts have been more effective than we predicted.
As we said before, we admire community activism, and Protect Morgantown’s triumph in getting Big Daddy Guns removed from its proposed downtown location at The Deck proves that activism is most effective when pressure is applied to the right places — or the right people.
Initial attempts to go head-to-head with Big Daddy Guns made it double-down and brought defenders flocking to its side. Working around the gun chain by lobbying other tenants and the developer itself was a far more successful strategy. Hats off to Protect Morgantown for working the problem from all angles.
Grassroots activism is the foundation not only for a strong democracy, but for a strong community. Too often, people are happy to complain about things going on around them — in their neighborhood, their town, their state, their country — but are reluctant to take action to make any changes. Which is why we must admire those willing to step up and engage, regardless of any personal feelings towards their position.
In the case of Protect Morgantown, members of the community coalesced around what they identified as a problem: a gun store in close proximity to Morgantown’s downtown, a high school, WVU’s main campus and multiple places of worship. Instead of merely complaining, these stakeholders took concrete steps to resolve the problem: they petitioned city council to change zoning laws, they approached Starbucks about withdrawing from The Deck and, so it appears, applied just the right amount of pressure to Hardy World for it to cancel Big Daddy Guns’ lease. And altogether, these efforts proved far more effective than just posting objections on social media.
We must give a nod to the recall effort to remove members of city council — it is a prime example of civic engagement and community activism. That said, an arguably better route would be for its leaders to encourage people to vote in city elections — which always have an abysmal turnout — and to run for local office.
In the last city election, two districts had candidates run unopposed, two had one name on the ballot plus one official write-in candidate and one district had only write-in candidates. There’s another election coming up in 2023, where about half the seats will be up for reelection. People who dislike the current makeup of the council should strongly consider running for the office and/or voting in the next city election. Voting, after all, is the most influential impact we as individuals can have on government systems.
To paraphrase Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by another force. In other words, change rarely happens of its own accord. Rather, it comes when individuals band together — it takes action. And that is why community activism and civic engagement are so important.
