Community Commentary

Now that I've actually determined to post regularly and let some people know about the NewsOverCoffee site and by extension this news blog, I thought it a good time to make some observations and put myself on record so you, the reader, can also keep me in line;-).

Yesterday around five thirty I was driving east on Belvidere toward Whitefield. On the corner was a woman with a stroller who was pregnant. She had the stroller angled to cross Belvidere and yet two cars in front of me each pulled up to the stop sign and proceeded through without waving her across. I waved for her to cross. She lowered the stroller to the street carefully, there were no curb cuts, and waved twice thanking me as she went and once she crossed.

This morning I was on route 78 around 5:15 a.m. on my way to a meeting in Philadelphia. Traffic came to a stop. A police car came into view, then flares, and twenty minutes later when we began to move again a minivan could be seen that was demolished and a tractor trailor on its side, wheels facing the road with the cab in the direction opposite traffic. Cargo was strewn down the road on the closed lane and into the grass. In the early morning hour it had a surreal look, with flashing emergency lights against dull crushed metal.

Why bring these two instances up? Because they are both poignant reminders to me of something we seem too often to miss today - civility and decency.

I walk alot in the borough often with my daughters. It's one of the reasons I love living here. Yet everytime we walk I'm struck by the fact that most drivers are so intent on getting to where they are going that they ignore common civility and often ignore the law as well. In the borough, where there are any number of potential unanticipated events that could occur, people roll through stop signs and speed with regularity. They also do not yield for pedestrians and most times seem unaware that a pedestrian is even standing on a corner waiting to use a crosswalk.

I don't know what occurred to cause the incident between the minivan and the tractor trailer on Route 78, but in driving to Philadelphia and back I saw at least five instances where I thought two cars would collide as a result of cars passing on the right and trying to cut inbetween vehicles in the left. These are not good drivers for not having caused an incident. They are instead fortunate that others yield to their lack of decency.

Which again brings me to civility and decency.

The driving force behind this site is to connect neighbors to share information. I'm a firm believer in collaboration and cooperation. Having been to the last two Council Meetings and Workshops I can say that both civility and decency were evident.

Tip O'Neal once said, "all politics is local." Well I can attest that local government is not about politics - at least not ours. While our council members may disagree, I have not seen them become locked on party lines - as is clearly the case at many other levels of government. The issues are indeed local, often to the point of most having a personal opinion. But the meetings have been civil and the members decent to one another. So too have the citizens who attend the meetings to listen, voice their concerns, and commend these individuals for their work.

Pulling these thoughts together, I want this sight to reflect civility and decency as well. I for one want to lead by example and I did add some statements to clarify comments I made in my posts on the Skate Park and House Bill after I had initially posted them. In hindsight I saw where elements I had taken for granted (for instance that the house bill had a good intention) were lost as I focused on the deductions and naming rights making the piece more negative than I had intended. In the future I'm going to be more careful about getting it right as opposed to getting it online fast. If I miss something or you think I've gone beyond civil or decent - call me on it, kindly. Email or post a comment.

Regarding the comments, I ask the same - be civil and decent, constructive and informative. Let's use this sight for productive purposes. I don't see a problem (though I've gotten more spam already than I'd like) and I do want comments to be as open as possible, but if they do become negative I'll move to a more restrictive setting.

I'm also going to let each council member know about this site and what I am doing so they can post comments to clarify and expand on the information presented.

In the end a good community is one with good people, who are polite and civil no matter whether you are a friend or stranger, or if your opinion is like or different. And I think we all feel our community is a good one that can be even better. It is my hope that the dialogue and information on this site will continue to move us in that direction.