If you don’t like the direction “Manteca is headed” and want change, do yourself a favor.

Act civil.

Toss the scorched earth tactics.

And distance yourself from racist innuendos.

In doing so, you won’t be creating second-hand ugliness that tarnishes the only citywide candidate being offered up this election cycle that is not the incumbent, which is Jacob Naven.

Mayor Gary Singh certainly doesn’t deserve the vile.

Nor does Naven need to have his campaign diminished by the toxicity being hurled — often by the nameless veiled in pseudonyms — at Singh.

We need to address the elephant(s) in the room.

First, Gary is a Democrat.

Jacob is a Republican.

Drop whatever personal venom you have for your general perceptions of what anyone who belongs to either party might be, especially if you base it on the most extreme views of the most extreme members of each party.

Why should you do that?

This is not a loco race. It is a local race.

If you can’t tone it down, then drive to the 100 block of North Main Street, get out of your car, and walk up to the bottom of the Vietnam War memorial.

There are 19 names listed.

Some were Democrats. Some were Republicans. Some were independent. Some were conservative. Some were liberal. Some were moderate. Some may not have cared or given much thought to any of those labels.

All are dead.

The point?

Think about the best way to honor the sacrifices of those that are not just Americans but also are Manteca residents.

At the same time, your neighbor is not the enemy just because you don’t agree with their viewpoints, politics, occupation, faith, ethnicity, culture, or whatever makes us individuals and not clones even within groups we freely associated with.

Faith. That’s another elephant.

Gary is Sikh.

Jacob is Mormon, the popular shorthand for being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

If you’ve got a problem with the freedom to worship as one chooses, then you might want to check into the nuances of various religious affiliations — or absence thereof — when it comes to your fellow keyboard warriors.

Ethnicity and culture. Another elephant.

Gary is Indian.

Jacob is Mexican, among other ethnicities.

Both are Americans.

Does anything else matter?

So, stop the South Park sophomoric humor about gas station and convenience store owners in the childish innuendos about “those people.”

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck and you don’t think such remarks don’t have at least a tinge of racism, why aren’t you trying to channel Sam Kinison when it comes to Jacob?

There’s a whole host of “wink, wink” references you can have at his expense based on ethnicity and faith.

But guess what.

Virtually all of us in our American roots, whether it is 12 generations or a generation or so ago, have immigrant forefathers.

They were the ones who took the jobs no one else wanted.

They are the ones that worked seemingly 24/7 hell bent on building a better life for their families.

They are the ones, when they got their chance, opened their own business or started their own farm.

It may have been in another era, but it is no different today in 2026.

That is what the first generation of immigrants are doing today.

Why there are a lot of Indians that own gas stations and convenience stores is quite simple. They are willing to work 80 to 100 hour weeks to make it as Americans

That doesn’t leave a lot of time for slamming folks on social media.

Occupation. Watch out for the elephant stampede.

Gary happens to be a real estate agent and has a father that sunk every spare dime into buying property, a truly American route to building wealth.

This, of course, gives the cowards of the Internet carte blanche to weave tales of conspiracy theories devoid of those inconvenient nuances known as facts.

One wonders how they will treat the other real estate professional on the Nov. 3 ballot running for the District 4 City Council seat, Dani Bettencourt.

As for Jacob, he clearly benefits from growth as well given those 800 to 1,400 homes being built each year that need to be insured.

So do all of the new vehicles on Manteca’s street that are the direct result of the growth that we are told is all Gary’s fault.

Gary and Jacob — and Manteca as a whole — don’t deserve an election where blind hate and/or rage soils the campaign.

It takes away from the real issues and blinds many to looking beyond the incumbent or even considering what the challenger offers.

Of course, that is not going to happen.

Manteca is not Fantasy Island.

That said, sticking to the issues without poisoning the collective community well that 97,000 people rely on is the best chance for effective civic leadership .