As we usher in the year Twenty-Ten, reflecting upon yesterday's crusades, while focused on tomorrow's causes, we invite you, community advocates and activists all, to step to the fore and march under the banner of The Community Alliance.
We are all about the local Long Island scene, balancing that first class education for our children with the skyrocketing costs of maintaining 124 separate and distinct school districts. We are as concerned as much with preserving the shellfish population and marine life in Long Island Sound and the Great South Bay, as we are angered by the proliferation of that selfish indulgence that pervades Long Island's special taxing districts and local governments.
More than mere observers, we are the protagonists of good government, championing transparency, accountability, and efficiency -- three words known more in the abstract in these parts than in practice.
From affordable housing to zoning, accessory apartments to assessments, smart growth to sustainable communities, we challenge both the status quo and the mindset of indifference.
Ours is also a global vision -- for no man is an island, long or otherwise. Climate change, health care, the plight of the homeless, jobless, and displaced, are part and parcel of Long Island's quality of life.
The gains may, at times, seem small, virtually immeasurable, too often calculated in terms of one step forward, two steps back. Nonetheless, we persevere, strengthened by the knowledge that each of us has a stake in the outcome, and every single one of us can and does make a difference.
We can, on the blog, in letters to the editors of our local papers, in well-placed Op-Ed pieces, pontificate -- bemoaning what is as we contemplate what might be. All well and good. Yet, the front lines of our battle to preserve suburbia and to improve the lives of every Long Islander, lie not in the written word -- let alone in the vacuous rhetoric of tea party revolutionists -- but in the deeds that are our hallmark as citizen activists, and the actions that will become the legacy of a people who not only see the trees for the forest, but understand that a blight upon any single one of those trees shall, in time, fell every last one of them.
As it happens, it all begins with the discourse. A handful of us in a living room, with a vision. A lone blogger on his laptop, with an idea. A sole dissenting voice that says, "no more."
Without you, however -- through your participation and involvement, in your hometown and far beyond -- it goes no further.
Take a stand for a better quality of life. Lend your voice to the great chorus of community. Be a part of that fraternity that is We, the people.
Reaffirm your commitment to community by supporting the endeavors of The Community Alliance, spreading the word, sharing the insights, seeking the truth, and contributing to the cause of a better, brighter world -- at least this little corner of it!
Write to The Community Alliance with your thoughts, comments, musings, and guest blogs at thecommunityalliance@yahoo.com.
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CommunityAlli.
And, by all means, scroll down (and keep on scrolling) to read The Community Alliance blog, today's rant for tomorrow's Long Island.
THE COMMUNITY ALLIANCE
New Visions For America's First Suburb
[No Electrons Were Harmed In The Making Of This Blog]
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