Get involved in your community

“You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem,” Eldridge Cleaver said. While not entirely true, this assertion does serve to remind citizens that complaints aren’t resolutions, and that solving problems often takes personal action.
This year’s village trustee elections on Tuesday in Lawrence, Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Harbor, Hewlett Nek and Woodsburgh do not have contested races, and the explanation could be, as Hewlett Harbor Deputy Mayor Leonard Oppenheimer said, “A combination of things: People are busy, and they leave it in the hands of those they trust, or they are content with what is going on.”
That may be true, but as demonstrated in a write-in vote last year in Hewlett Harbor to unseat Trustee Tom Cohen, which failed, or the unseating of longtime Atlantic Beach Mayor Stephen Mahler by George Pappas, also in 2014, residents occasionally do rebel against the status quo and vote for someone new.
People with fresh ideas — big or small — are needed and should get involved, from volunteering for groups such as the PTA, or the local Chamber of Commerce to running for election to public office.
Jonathan Polakoff, who is running for trustee in Woodsburgh, served as the village’s fire commissioner for the past four years. Polakoff attended all the board meetings after his appointment, he said, and he learned about “the challenges before the community.”
That is what we would like to see: People getting involved and then putting their knowledge and experience to work to help the community. The first step is voting. Show your support for the people running for office, and consider preparing now to run the next time. Get involved. Become part of the solution.