On May 6, 2025, I stood before the Board of Supervisors to deliver a speech that had been building inside me. As a resident of the North River District, I wanted to move beyond the usual debates over line items and contracts to discuss the soul of our community.
The Spark: Revitalize or Die
My journey into public service began in September 2022 when I helped sponsor Jeff Siegler of Revitalize or Die to host a civic pride workshop here in Front Royal. His message changed my life. It pushed me to stop being a bystander and start helping build a community people could truly be proud of.
In a blog post titled “Hard to Love,” Siegler wrote about how destructive it is when a town decides that finance is the only thing worth considering. When we prioritize dollars over dignity, the fabric of the community begins to unravel.
The Human Cost of Politics
For the past two years, Samuels Public Library has been at the center of a global political storm. While the technical debates focused on MOAs and budgets, the human cost was staggering:
- Staff were harassed and volunteers were pushed to the brink of walking away.
- The Mellon Grant and critical projects were thrown into limbo.
- Good people left. I found myself choking up at the podium as I spoke about this. People didn’t leave because they didn’t care; they left because it became too painful to stay. As Siegler warned, we ignored the value of identity and pride in our fixation on controlling costs.
The Lighthouse Design
The architecture of our library is not an accident. The building was designed to resemble a lighthouse—a beacon of knowledge and safety. Beauty has both emotional and financial value, and the library remains one of the few places in our county that people can point to with absolute pride.
To Be Continued…
Given the weight of the moment and the emotion behind our Director’s resignation, I was unable to complete my prepared remarks before my allotted time expired. However, the message remained clear: a community that is “easy to love” values its institutions and the people who run them.
I will be returning to the podium on May 20th to finish what I started.
Watch the Testimony
You can see the first half of my speech and the discussion on civic pride here:
- 0:00 – Defining the difference between “Finance” and “Value”
- 2:04 – Reflection on the human cost and the “Lighthouse” design
Transcript (auto-generated)
0:00Good evening, supervisors. My name is Lewis Louie Motton. Uh I currently serve as a trustee at Samuels Public Library,
0:08
8 secondsbut I want to be clear, the thoughts I’m sharing tonight are my own.
0:11
11 secondsWhich which uh uh magisterial district are you from? It is the North River district. Okay. Thank you.
0:20
20 secondsUh the thoughts I’m sharing tonight are my own and do not reflect the official position of the library or its board. Uh
0:27
27 secondsin September 2022, I was one of the premier level SP sponsors who helped bring Jeff Sigler to Front Royal for a civic pride workshop.
0:37
37 secondsHis message didn’t just resonate with it just didn’t just resonate, it changed my life. That event inspired me to step
0:45
45 secondsinto public service for the first time and I want to be a part of building a community that people could be proud of.
0:53
53 secondsUh in a blog blog post titled hard to love, Sigler recounted a headline that reads consultant says our town is hard
1:00
1 minuteto love. And it sounds harsh, but as he explained, it wasn’t an insult. It was an invitation and an invitation to
1:07
1 minute, 7 secondschange the way we talk about our town and the decisions we make for it. He wrote, “At some point, we decided that
1:15
1 minute, 15 secondsfinance is the only thing worth considering, and this thinking has been incredibly destructive
1:23
1 minute, 23 secondswhen we prioritize finances over everything else. Communities begin to fall apart.
1:32
1 minute, 32 secondsI’ve seen it firsthand. Two years ago, our library was pushed into the center of a political storm that garnered global attention. Staff were harassed.
1:43
1 minute, 43 secondsVolunteers nearly walked away. Projects were paused. And the melon grant was put into limbo.
1:51
1 minute, 51 secondsPeople left.
2:04
2 minutes, 4 secondsIt it wasn’t because they didn’t care,
2:12
2 minutes, 12 secondsthough because it came too painful to to stay. The county debated documents and deals fixated on controlling cost.
2:23
2 minutes, 23 secondsBut as Sigler says, we ignored value, not just in dollars, but in dignity, identity, and pride.
2:33
2 minutes, 33 secondsThe buildings people take pride in are the nicest ones. Beauty has both emotional and financial value.
2:42
2 minutes, 42 secondsThe library is one of those places, and it’s designed, shaped to resemble a lighthouse, is no accident.
2:51
2 minutes, 51 secondsAnd I see my my time is up about ups.
2:54
2 minutes, 54 secondsBut thank you
