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You have to love politics, or at least be able to ignore the fringe element, to survive it. You also have to have a great desire to serve your community, which means that you won’t be able to make everyone happy. With today’s social media and the ability for anyone to create a one-person campaign of slander and libel through a blog, many who would like to serve their community, will not. Those with families often find not only themselves attacked, but those around them become targets, as well.

Accusations and innuendo in the form of questions. Personal attacks on your appearance. Personal attacks on decisions you make. Personal attacks in the form of comments left “anonymously.” Outright lies. It’s a common occurrence against every public servant at every level of government on blogs that write about politics. Most people won’t serve their community in a direct capacity because they don’t want their family to feel the repercussions of such attacks. While everyone has the right to question a decision by their representative that they may disagree with, when it gets personal it goes beyond a disagreement of ideology. It’s unacceptable.

That’s a problem for us in West Easton. People don’t want to run for office, or even be appointed to a board for fear of becoming a target of someone who takes a disagreement to a personal level.

How do I know this?

I’ve asked.

I talk often with a number of neighbors at “the fence.” An area that seems to be a congregation point for a beer with immediate neighbors in the evening. I’ve talked to residents on nearby streets. As with any encounter, occasionally our borough is discussed and they have ideas they feel would benefit the community. Some are actually good. A few are far too expensive for our small community to maintain, or would create a severe liability for the community.  However, I do suggest they serve the community in some capacity, or let Council know that they would like to serve on a board, since they have an interest in community affairs.

The response is a resounding, “No.” They don’t want to be subjected to what those now serving have to deal with.

“Maybe when ‘somebody’ moves,” was one response. Another felt it was too dangerous, for reasons that I won’t delve into here.

Overall though, those I talked with felt that the existing leadership were doing the best they could under the circumstances. All felt sympathy for them, because of what they have to deal with.

However, the good news is that I was able to convince one person to apply for any future opening on the Zoning Board that might come up. Hopefully, he will serve, if called upon.

Now, if only more residents would attend a few Council meetings each year. Getting involved by simply observing, to better understand what is happening and the reasons for decisions that are made, is better than reading a distorted version, from someone else.