Ok, since I couldn't find any good sized pictures of Vale Park Road (mostly just house listings), I figured this will do just fine. Plus, this apartment complex gets some free advertising. Go them.This whole issue revolves around a want to rename Vale Park Road, making it Ronald Reagan Road, in celebration of Reagan's 100th birthday. This sort of thing, first of all, is not uncommon. We have several schools named after Presidents even. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Washington...in addition to roads named after Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Jefferson, etc., etc., etc. It isn't just that I'm a staunch Republican that I support this idea. In forty years, if I'm in any sort of significant office where I have any sort of say, I'll gladly vote "ya" in favor of a Clinton Street, in sixty years or so I'll gladly vote "ya" for an Obama Boulevard; this isn't about politics. This about honoring a past President.
I had first decided to write about this issue a couple of days ago, when the Post-Tribune ran an article claiming a poll that 60% of people in Valpo opposed the renaming. I was actually a bit surprised...until I read the last paragraph of the article.
"JEM Research (the group that conducted the poll) conducts polls on behalf of the Democratic Party, but DeWitt said her company was not paid by anyone for this poll"
Oh really! A group that polls for Democrats, when polling for a name change for a road being named after a past Republican President, came up with a number like 60% opposition. If anyone out there could see my face right now, I'm sure the surprised and shocked look that rests upon it would cause you to worry. I'm certainly not claiming that the group fudged the numbers, or even made sure they called more D's than R's...all I'm saying is, I'm so baffled I can hardly contain myself. Really. Seriously.
Besides that point, there are many different angles to this. A group that is apparently headed by Michael Essany has come out as extremely opposed to this name change. Now, I like Essany (I'm dropping the sarcasm by this point, I felt I needed to say that since the format of the written word can make it troublesome for the reader to tell sarcasm sometimes). And I think he makes a couple of good, key points. For example, I had no idea the historical relevance of Vale Park Road (being a Hebron-ite, I don't have memorized all of Valparaiso's history, my apologies, readers). He makes the point that perhaps another area would be better, one that doesn't have a road with such heritage. I agree. Perhaps another road would be better, and as a matter of fact, so does Chuck Williams, the Porter County Republican Chairman that proposed the idea.
"We're going to have to sit down and talk about it and go through the process," he said. "We have to take into consideration any of the businesses or homeowners who would be affected. That's my main concern. There are a lot of things we can look at, but I think we have to do something in celebration.
"We put something out, and sometimes, when you throw out an idea, better ideas come up."
That is where I agree with Essany, the areas I disagree?
First, I think he is tackling this thing awfully aggressively. I haven't a doubt in my mind that Essany is being earnest when he gives his points of view, but for something like this? I think that such an aggressive campaign against something so simple as a road name change is unneeded, personally. I would have first appealed to Williams personally, or even written an op-ed suggesting a separate location. If nothing happens after that, then perhaps start filing petitions and contacting newspapers. Below is Essany's quote from the Post-Trib:
"We're not anti-Reagan," Essany said. "We would not want to see it renamed to honor Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy or anything else. Let's do it in a place that doesn't detract from the streets that honor the city. I think it has politics written all over it. The sentiment is nice, but in a year with municipal elections coming it helps the all-Republican officials."
The spot where I disagree (or rather, think he gets a little off base) is the closing sentence about it helping the all-Republican officials. I don't think that is the intended idea, and I don't think it would help all that much, if at all. Reagan was a pretty popular President for members of both parties. As a mill worker who bugs his fellow union members with political thought and commentary on a daily basis, I can honestly say that Reagan was a President that most union Democrats either A)ended up really liking or B)they voted for. With a President like Reagan, in my experience talking to people, politics is rarely actually brought up. "Republican" is not the first word that pops into their heads.
The arguments that some have made about the cost is greatly exaggerated, and doesn't give much faith to our post office workers. I have two addresses, so I live so close to the post office. I have a PO Box, and a physical address. Some of my mail has the PO Box, some has the physical. Amazingly enough, the employees have the good sense to not just throw away my physical addressed mail! Could it me, that once the employees are informed that "Vale Park Road" and "Reagan Road" are the same thing, they could handle this with relative ease? I think so. The cost of road signs being changed would be paid by donations, so this is a relatively moot point.
As a summary:
1) Essany and his group shouldn't jump to the "petition filing" mode just yet. Williams seems more than willing to change the location. Offer advice, let him know your grievances, and work with him to help find a suitable road that would not interfere in Valparaiso's history.
2) The idea itself is a good one, and politics should not play a role in honoring those that have served as Commander in Chief.
3) Everyone should take a chill pill (sorry, an old saying I've adopted from my father. Dated, yes. True, absolutely.) It's not as though Williams wants to force all Valpo residents to vote straight ticket R's. There are many arguments and battles that will and should get heated; this is not one of them.
