Dear Residents of Northfield Village,
My name is Jason Czerr, a 38-year-old resident of Vienna, West Virginia, where I teach middle school students and raise my beautiful children. Even though I do not live in your city, I have a strong connection to your city, for it‘s where a large portion of my family resides, where I grew up and spent my childhood. I spent the first ten years of my life on Monroe Drive, just off Houghton Road, living with my father at my grandparents‘ residence due to a divorce and then, the next five years at 231 Magnolia Avenue, the first ever home my father built from the ground up with a small crew. Considering all that I had been through with the divorce, the absence of my mother, and all the trying events my father had to go through to get to this point, this was such a big deal at the time, raising a family in a potentially close-knit community. It proved to be a very positive experience, the lasting friendships and relationships that were developed during this time will hold a place in my heart for a lifetime. Almost every day was spent playing on the playground across the street from our house, riding bikes up and down the streets, rounding up the neighborhood for some pick-up games of basketball and/or sandlot baseball. Occasionally, we’d even get together at sundown for some adventurous games of flashlight tag. I‘m not sure if these are the same activities enjoyed by the Northfield youth today, but I surely hope it is. Neighbors were friends and everyone knew each other on a first-name basis. You know the saying…”it takes a village”? We found our village. Unfortunately, this is not a memoir.
My father is running for mayor of your village. Recently, this man has been portrayed as a villain due to videos he posted that were, ”containing crude content related to sexual assault of women and racially offensive generalizations and stereotypes” according to councilman, Alan Hipps. The picture he painted is hard to believe this is the same man who beat the odds. Working with children on a daily basis, I see many struggles for the parent(s) raising their children in today’s world, especially with the current state of a drug epidemic. Statistics can be used to favor whatever position you would like to take, numbers can be skewed, but I would say from personal experience, that most broken homes do not produce the successful results we seek. That’s the point. I‘m happy and thriving today due to my father beating those odds. I’m here to speak on the behalf of his character and who he is. I am not here to promote him as mayor, although I do feel you are need of a change. That’s not the point, though. The point is for me to explain to you who he really is and to let you know that he is a good person, not the villain he has been portrayed to be.
My father is a hard worker. I hated working for him. During my youth, chores were important, and I had my fair share. I would also spend my teen years, working with him in the summertime and I hated it. Being the son of the guy in charge was not easy. Besides having higher expectations for me, he never let up when teaching me perseverance. When there was a job to be done, efficiency and quality were the only way to describe the finished product, or it was completed again. I could see him being that same, foreman-type if elected to be mayor.
My father is full of heart. I have a very open mind and I believe that was given to me by my father. His example of loving every one of all genders, races and ethnic backgrounds helped me understand how beautiful the world is with its differences. I learned to embrace differences and celebrate them. All of my friends express how welcoming my father is and quick he was to accept them into the family. I could go into many, specific stories from my years where my father has helped someone in need and wanted no validation whatsoever for it.
My father is humble. He knows that his political experience is very limited. He’s not the type to act like he knows everything. In fact, he taught us that we will never know it all, that we need to be a lifelong learner. He also taught us that it is ok to say, ”I am wrong,” when you are. He can be an eccentric man, but I can still see him listening to the people with concern, compassion and even skepticism at times.
My father is a human being. He’s imperfect. He makes bad choices. He does things he regrets. The videos he made were done in poor taste. His racy humor should not be the humor shared by an elected official, let alone the Mayor of the village. Posting those videos was a stupid decision. This doesn’t make him less of a person. He’s apologized. He’ll tell you he wasn’t thinking about being a mayor at the time and feels foolish that that video is a representation of who he is. It isn’t. How do I know? I wouldn’t support the concept that he is a good person if I didn’t think that. If I thought he was a villain or” village idiot,” I’d stay in my line, so to speak. You wouldn’t hear from me.
I hope you at least considered this defense when judging for yourself who Keith Czerr really is. If the transgressions the candidates have committed in the PAST are so important, then I ask that you judge ALL of the candidates, appropriately. I promise you won’t find any perfection when you look. You will find blemishes, though. YOU WILL FIND THE SKELETONS YOU SEEK.
My father is a great father. If you would like to know why he is flawed, just ask me. He has NOTHING TO HIDE. What you see is what you get.
If you took the time to read and consider this, I thank you. Good luck making sound decisions this election season.
Jason Czerr, former resident and son of Northfield Village mayoral candidate, Keith Czerr
