For awhile, the back-and-forth dialogue in town, in this paper now, has reflected a high level of stress. When money is going out faster than it is coming in, when the town feels so many aspects of its charm, excellence, and beauty threatened, it brings out the worst in all of us.
Basic fundamentals of strong communication, trust-building, respect for differences, good listening, and fairness are lost to denial and magical thinking at best, and fear, anger, and mistrust at worst. The tongue becomes sharper, communication and its attack becomes more personal. It is easy to blame rather than listen; to intimidate rather than work together; to simplify answers rather than face the long-term plan; to fight rather than work to come together; to deny the need to accept change rather than be proactive. I commend anyone who is trying to step into the fray of this climate and roll up his or her sleeves to make a difference.
Too many residents are hanging out in the peanut gallery, coming out only to vote, driving by changes from the safety of their cars, and feeling ill-informed. However, when the effort to promote difficult change is attempted by too few, the peanut gallery becomes the voice of reason.
Our peanut gallery must start to get involved before the vote, to get informed, to become active in whatever way possible. A failed effort is better than no effort at all. Failure is inevitable if too few decide for too many and try to intimidate the rest. Maybe we can focus energy into a more cohesive directive—toward being proactive rather than reactive. Paralysis, impasse, denial, and anger—without constructive solutions—are the town’s Achilles heel. We must become constructive and collaborate so we can move forward. Otherwise, what we all lose is very personal.
Belinda Friedrich
Littleton Road
