I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July. I hope you take time to attend the breakfast in the park, the veteran’s march to Veteran’s Park, the fireworks up on State Street, and your own celebration.
Our wonderful United States of America has now been in existence for 248 years. When you study the history the world from the perspective of 1776, only the ancient Greeks and Romans had tried democracy up to that point. Greece fell to the Romans. Rome fell into dictatorship.
In 1776, the idea of forming a republican democracy was a very radical idea. The founding fathers were students of ancient Greece and Rome. They used the lessons that could be gleaned from the rise and fall these two civilizations to form a radical new government not based on the rule of a man, but on the rule of law.
Knowing human nature and the flaws of the Greek and Roman systems, the Founders divided the powers of government into three equal branches, the Legislative, the Administrative, and the Judicial. There was nothing about “This is how we have always done it” about the new system of government.
Even with these checks and balances, John Adams, the Founder who may have been the greatest student of ancient democracy, made the observation that for a democracy to succeed required a virtuous society. In other words, even with the checks and balances in our system, democracy requires us to be respectful of others, to have a sense of fairness, not to insist on our way only, to consider other’s needs as well as our own, and to work together on the decisions reached by the majority.
Locally, we saw a wonderful example of this type of effort when the community came together to raise funds to pay off the mortgage on the Senior Citizens Center. The community was educated on the need, a project was organized, you, the public responded generously, and the balance was substantially reduced.
I hope that as a society we can take this “birthday” as a time to reflect on what it means to live together as a society, to resolutely address issues as they arise, and to work as a body to resolve those issues. I hope that we can reflect on just how radical an idea this wonderful country is in world history. It is precious.
Well, so much for my soapbox. On to City business.
If you drive up by Memorial Park, you may notice that the playground equipment on the south end of the park is coming out. You may remember that the City received a $250,000 grant to make improvements. Originally, personally I thought the funds should be used for a walking path completely around the park. However, in looking at all of the park, it became apparent that the playground was losing structural integrity due to age and occasional vandalism which was beginning to have a cumulative effect. It turns out that quality playground equipment is very expense. So, while it would have been nice to have a designated walking path, folks can still walk around the park, with or without a sidewalk. But having safe playground equipment accessible to all kids became a higher priority.
All that is to say, the playground equipment has been chosen by a City Council committee, the contract has been awarded, and the City crew is in the process of removing the old playground at this time. The new playground should be ready by this fall.
Well, that’s it for this week. I hope all of you are able to quickly get caught up on your sleep after the fireworks celebrations. Hope you have a wonderful fourth.
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