As recently as the 1970s, most issues that affected a
large majority of people would generate much public debate and
involvement in the democratic process of electing people to represent
us – local, county, state and national. The number of small PDS-like
types of grassroots organizations throughout the 1970s and into the
very early 1980s was amazing to watch if you were lucky enough to have
lived here during that time.

After that, public interest on a
local level seemed to wane around here. Maybe it was the crazed '80s
that kept us all so busy we didn't notice things happening around us.
Low voter turnout, still to this day, is somehow translated by some to
mean people are "happy with things the way they are."

Don't buy
it – the real heart of the problem is simply that people are too busy
trying to stay afloat to notice every single issue. It seemed so
shocking at the time when the Mystic View Task Force took up the fight
to put Assembly Square on the right track – like they were fighting the
"old boy network" on some level. It seemed even more shocking when
other small politically-based movements started to pop up here and
there, some managing to take hold of different segments of the voting
population.

That's the problem – none of this is new – and none
of it should be simply dismissed as "old" vs. "new" Somerville. We all
live here, and see the changes that are happening. Some of us more than
others, and that's okay – but maybe we can start coming together on
more issues instead of being divisive and perpetuating myths and trying
to act like we all don't want the same things – safe schools for our
children, adequate police and fire protection, honest representation in
local government. Maybe then we can work in the little things that we
selectively desire from an ideological standpoint – collaboratively,
not closed-mindedly.

We have to start be being more involved –
not just blow the roof off the barn because parking times were lowered
and fees were raised, not just because our property taxes have gone up,
not just because one person favors a certain set of ideological
principles over the next person. There has to be more collaboration,
cooperation and working together to get these types of things moving in
the right direction.

It starts by going out to vote, especially
if you can't spend time working with a local community group, sit on a
local board, or put yourself out there by running for office. It's not
just your right, it's your responsibility to those people, like them or
not, agree with them or not, that put themselves out there every day
and night – the true believers that we can make a change right here,
right now. We did it when we elected Barack Obama President – we can
certainly do it when it comes to local elections.