Summer’s not quite over, but our time off at the Press has come to an end. We’re reaching for pens, notebooks, and recorders, reading meeting agendas, chatting with officials and friends as we get ready for a busy fall.
There certainly is no lack of news this week. If there’s a theme it’s the need for civil discourse to resolve the problems Harvard and the region will face in coming weeks and months. Each situation is unique, and each involves competing interests. From the landfill, to the pond, to new housing at Devens, what’s needed is a willingness to meet, to listen, and work together to find, through good-faith negotiation, the best available solutions. That will be a challenge in today’s polarized and polarizing environment.
Maybe we all need to lighten up. Or to quote a 1960s folk anthem on a balmy, late summer day:
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
—Chet Powers