I had not been in the Wildwood Crest municipal courtroom since we went there in about 1980 to seek a variance to build our home. My Wednesday morning appearance in the plain, but comfortable chamber reminded me of that night, so long ago, when our 31-year-old daughter was still a nursing infant. A variance for (height as I recall) was granted and that was about the last brush with local government I have had in those many intervening years.
Not that I haven’t been a fairly responsible citizen, voting in many local state and national elections, but I have left the nuts and bolts of governance to those more savvy than I in managing the affairs of our borough. After all, my experience in such things stopped at the door of a public school classroom in which I taught before the children came along and managing the very special privilege of being the homemaker of a busy family.
I always have been an avid reader and been only interested in national politics. I did not pay attention to what went on in our little blocks-wide community on the Five-Mile Island that we share with four other governing bodies. (Now that is a thought for another day). Occasionally I noticed when they did something I liked, but often I was grumbling about something that displeased me.
Lately, events and winds of ideas that seem to permeate our collective minds have roused me to abandon my civic stupor.
One of those events was my husband’s conversation with a Lower Township official who lamented the lack of public support as he attempts to govern. He expressed that it is next to impossible to get anybody to run for office. Take note of the race for freeholder and the candidates running unopposed. I feel ashamed for all of us.
Another component in my decision to reenter the Crest Municipal Building has been the awareness of how precious is this fragile thing we call Democracy.
Art and I both have recently finished reading a book called “A History of the American People” by Paul Johnson. It confirmed my love for this nation and the rare country that it is. However America has over 300 million citizens and I feel very small in that big number.
It is different in our little seaside town. Here I can walk into the Borough Hall and see my neighbors sitting in the seats of decision. I can listen to them debate the issues and even have the astounding privilege of expressing what I think. Astounding in comparison to rioters in the Middle East who are dying every day for that ability. Our community leaders need us to pay attention. They are asking us, “What do you think?” and “How should we spend your money?” Don’t you think many of us should be there to answer these questions?
PATRICIA HALL, the publisher’s wife
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