Freehold Borough is among a handful of United States towns engaging in an important social experiment which may help set the tone for a new social revolution throughout America.
Let’s call it returning to the simpler and richer times our parents and grandparents enjoyed, not so long ago, in small town America.
Mayor Michael Wilson’s Neighborhood Pride Program is only the first step in helping re-establish strong family, neighborhood and community bonds by revisiting those times and places in our memories that remind of us safety, joy, warmth and comfort.
We expect the program to produce the same kind of “feel good” emotions as a satisfying mac and cheese dinner does for most of us after a stressful day.
Freehold’s program will help create an interactive, engaging and inspiring experience through which we are all going to get to know “the people who live next door” a whole lot better and prepare to meet them on a plane of friendship and brotherhood.
And with gasoline prices and general living expenses going through the roof, isn’t it time to rediscover and share in the terrific entertainment and rewarding family and community experiences offered within our cozy little town’s charming borders?
Freehold Borough has all the right ingredients to build a greater sense of community through its Neighborhood Pride Program.
Our historic homes and buildings symbolize our lasting quality as a community and our residents strive for high standards and quality in all areas of the community. The story of the continual progress and improvement of our schools is a good example of this. And, there are plenty of other inspirational reasons to work together toward an even more satisfying living experience in our town.
What is impetus for all this? Within all of us is an intense need to compensate for the impersonal and threatening aspects of our troubling times. We all recognize that there has been a growing crisis in American civic life that must be reversed – the erosion of community.
It is becoming very apparent that sense of community is about to re-emerge as a powerful force in our culture as we seek mutual identification with others, on the basis of a sense of belonging together. It’s an increasingly difficult world out there and it is time to come home and pull together with friends, family and neighbors.
Isolation and apathy have only produced negative results and we must abandon them to engage in the world and make a difference. We are starved for this kind of change and we must have it.
Promoting a greater concept of community through our Neighborhood Pride Program may not be a panacea, but it may help to bring about the kind of world that we and others are dreaming of a little more each passing day. I’m glad Freehold Borough is taking the lead in reminding everyone that we can create the kind of world we wish to live in.
Marc Le Vine
Councilman
Freehold Borough