Last week’s letters from Margaret Friedenauer and James Axel Wilson (the recall/eulachon harvest) have me wondering if, since we have a borough lawyer, could we also have a go-to professional borough mediation firm or a particular mediator? Personally, I don’t understand how our lawyer could sign off on the recall allegations, but leaving that aside as my own opinion, could a mediator have helped the original recall group or talk to the three assembly members, could they have found common ground somewhere, somehow?  Instead of going to court and its thousands of related dollars, could the upland property owners and the local Natives have gone to mediation and found the same solution through a workable, non-polarizing process? It may not have been easy in either case but I’d like to think the results would have been better than what we’ve ended up with.

The us vs. them way of thinking and living has had its day, it’s over, the tide has changed, it’s time for “we.” Sure, it may be hundreds of years before the tide is in, still it’s got to start sometime and right now is perfect. Could our Manager and Assembly take an active role in pointing us all toward that “we” way of thinking and living whether it’s overtly the borough’s business or not by identifying that firm or that person? Please say yes, sure, we can do that! Thank you.    

Evelyna Vignola