Keep Those Cards and Letters

It's only fair, I suppose-actually more than fair. You put up with my noodlings here every day and in the newspaper once a week and it was bound to happen that I'd hit a nerve.

I've spent most of the previous fortnight learning how many people read the editorial page, at least on Wednesdays. Color me surprised (and tell the Crayola people I'll get with them later on fitting it into the box). I think the small dialogues we had with one another were constructive if not especially helpful (we didn't convince one another of anything we didn't already believe) but that was okay.

For those who stopped to speak with me near the salad bar at the grocery store or in the parking lot outside of it or while I was heading into Planet Fitness, I wanted that photo you mentioned at the top of the column for the side of a milk carton with a "Have You Seen this Dweeb?" caption. The Bulletin didn't seem to care but the dairy sure did; they said I was so ugly I'd frighten the children and sour the milk.

Might I offer, as a feeble counterpoint that if you could and did read the column you should have first thanked a teacher for making it possible. And I'm whining for effect, truth be told, because actually more people made it a point to seek me out to share their agreement with me than to offer a differing opinion, to which they are most certainly entitled though that's not my point (I'm wearing a hat so you might not see it).

I appreciated your thoughts and words but the people you should be speaking to are the same ones we all selected to be on the City Council. Being present for parts of both public hearings, and reading the meeting minutes on line at the city's website, I applaud everyone who spoke out and spoke up but almost none of  those who spoke at the hearings are those who spoke, sent email or wrote actual paper and stamp notes to me.

I don't have all the answers and you don't have all the answers; neither do the folks we've elected to the City Council. But each of us knows something and we are so much smarter together than we are separately that I get confused when we seem to choose to NOT be open and honest with one another in order for all of us to move forward.

There's still too much "for me to look good, you need to look bad" posturing and pouting going on. It's a luxury we literally cannot afford. We're all in the same boat be it with Gilligan or Fletcher Christian. And because the part of the boat nearest me has sprung a leak doesn't mean you don't need to help. If anything, that should mean you re-double your effort to assist because while we may be in a small boat, it's a vast ocean and we are a long way from shore.

The problem with not knowing where you're going, is not knowing when you've gotten there. I, like everyone on this anthill, don't know what I don't know. And many times what I don't know is what's important and critical. But let me suggest we cannot continue in the manner we have been going for decades-it doesn't work.

We have a crumbling infrastructure from sidewalks through public safety personnel to education, a stagnant grand list and over burdened property owners who see themselves more as hostages than citizens.

If we're not willing to tell one another what we want and how much we're willing to sacrifice to have it, we'll have no one but ourselves to blame when we fail. We can lend a helping hand or choose to ball a fist. We decide.
-bill kenny