Who am I? And why am I running for Lebanon County commissioner?

Who am I? And why do I want to serve as Lebanon County commissioner?

Answering the second question is easy. I want to serve because I love this place and I want to give back to a community that has given so much to me. Because I want to take my community service to the next level by helping to make our county a better place for people to live, work, play, learn, grow up, visit, move to, start a business, and enjoy.

So who am I? Answering that’s a bit harder. I am a carpenter, a woodworker, and a builder who knows how to work with his hands. I’m also a historian, a teacher, and a scholar who knows how to work with his head. And I’m a gardener, a plant person, a lover of nature, a husband, a father, and a grandfather who knows how to follow his heart.

For the job of county commissioner, I’m all those things plus someone who knows how to work productively and collaboratively with people of diverse stripes and persuasions to get positive things done for our community.

More than 15 years ago, I moved to Lebanon County to take a full-time job teaching History at Lebanon Valley College. I live in South Annville Township and am married to Annville native Karen Feather. My two children, ages 34 and 30, and three adorable grandchildren, ages 10, 8, and 5, all live in the Ann Arbor-Detroit area in Michigan. I miss them but we stay in close touch.

Visiting my kids & grandkids in Michigan last year.

Last year I retired from LVC. Retirement has opened up more time for my community involvement as an active citizen who’s trying to make his small corner of the world a little bit better place — a record of civic engagement that’s expanded and deepened over the years.

How so? Let me sketch the highlights.

Community service & leadership in the Lebanon Valley

Ever since bumping into Dave and Ann Lasky while I was picking up trash along the banks of Quittie Creek some 15 years ago, I’ve been an active member of the Quittie Creek Nature Park Committee, which helps to steward the Nature Park in collaboration with Annville Township (https://www.fooa.org/quittie-park).
In 2011, I created the Quittapahilla Creek Garbage Museum in my backyard on the north bank of Quittie Creek in Annville, a project born of my dismay and outrage at the masses of plastic garbage contaminating our lovely local waterway. Its goal was to raise public awareness and educate, especially among children and young people, and it succeeded: in 2017, my Garbage Museum was awarded the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence (https://www.facebook.com/AnnvillePA).

With then PA-DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell after winning the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence, March 2017.

Since 2012, I’ve served as President of Annville’s leading civic organization, the Friends of Old Annville, helping to organize each year’s Historic Old Annville Day, our seasonal programs, and to advance our mission of historic preservation and working collaboratively with Annville Township for the betterment of the community (www.fooa.org).
Since 2013, I’ve served as President of the Quittapahilla Watershed Association, which has facilitated the receipt of several million dollars’ worth of state and federal funding for stream restoration work in the Quittie watershed (http://www.quittiecreek.org).
Since 2014, I’ve served as Vice President of Lebanon Pipeline Awareness (https://www.facebook.com/LebanonPipelineAwareness).
In fall 2019, I was named the Democratic Party nominee for the January 2020 special election for PA Senate District 48, a race I lost to Republican Dave Arnold, may he rest in peace. It’s my only bid for public office before now.
In summer 2020, I helped to found and since February 2021 have served as Secretary of Lebanon County Branch 26AA of the NAACP (https://lebanonnaacp.org).
Since 2017, I have served on the Executive Committee and as Treasurer of the Middle Atlantic Council on Latin American Studies (www.maclas.org).

In sum, I see my public service as a county commissioner as a natural outgrowth of the community work I’ve been doing over the past dozen-plus years. I bring to the table broad familiarity with the political and civic landscape of our county and a wealth of practical and professional life experiences. I know how to work collaboratively with others in pursuit of common aims, and how to seek common ground and a productive path forward when aims differ or diverge. I play by the rules, play fair and square, and I am well prepared by temperament, knowledge, skills, and expertise to serve as your next county commissioner.

What do I believe in?

In my personal life, I believe in God, family, love, compassion, and the Golden Rule.
In terms of public policy and public life, I believe in fairness, justice, peace, democracy, and our nation’s foundational promise, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, that all people are created politically equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights. I also believe in the framework of governance created by the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions, and in respecting institutions, practicing civility and civic virtue, and making government transparent and accountable to the public it is meant to serve.
I believe in disagreeing without being disagreeable.
I believe in the basic decency and goodness of the vast majority of our fellow human beings, and that all people, and all living things, deserve to be treated with respect. I believe that all life is sacred.
I believe that the best way to learn what other people think and believe is to listen to them, and to pay especially close attention to what they do. I believe that actions speak much louder than words.
I believe in leaving the world a better place than I found it.

I am honored and humbled at the prospect of serving as your next county commissioner, and I thank you for considering my candidacy. Every voter gets two votes for county commissioner. I respectfully ask you to cast just one vote – one vote for fresh leadership.

Michael Schroeder is Professor Emeritus of History at Lebanon Valley College.

Schroeder for Commissioner Campaign Blog
https://schroeder4commissioner.com/campaign-blog

Schroeder for Commissioner YouTube Video Endorsements
https://schroeder4commissioner.com/video-endorsements