Dear Editor:
It’s hard to keep our attention from returning again and again to the still-smoking gap in the skyline across the river. It’s almost impossible to talk about anything else, as all of us who are trying to conduct "business as usual" will attest. We don’t know how to handle it, this blow that demolished our innocence on a bright September morning. If there is anything that we as individuals can learn from the terrorist attack on our nation, it is to turn inwards and examine our own lives and our own motives.
Hobokenites, shaken by a catastrophe literally at our eastern border, return to Pier A Park, to stare at a skyline like a mouth with teeth knocked out, to remember the gleaming towers as they caught the reflection of the sunset, to remember people and places and hopes.
As part of Hudson County, with its unsavory past of political intrigue and corruption, Hoboken continues its evolution from Tammany Hall-style "boss" rule to democracy. In past years, the Council voted unanimously as directed by the Mayor. The bloc crumbled on May 8. The goals of a united Hoboken; open government, civility and respect to citizens, fiscal responsibility and preservation of our quality of life, were hard won, landslide or no landslide. It was gratifying to see it in Hoboken, where a feudal system of fear and favors existed for generations.
Let us think very carefully before we cast our votes for City Council representatives in the November election. Let us be aware that people who seek public office have different motives and personal agendas. Let’s look at what they hope to gain, and what they hope to give. Do they follow the old-style system of threats and deals we worked so hard to put behind us, or do they wish to pay forward to the community all the helping hands and encouragement they got on their way up? Think about what the words "public service" mean to you.
New ideas and enthusiasm are blowing fresh air into the musty chambers of city government. You may remember the uproar when somebody said something about the changing makeup of the Council a year or so ago. Hoboken is a diversified environment; infinite diversity in infinite combinations is beneficial to all.
We must work to encourage our diversity, to respect and celebrate it. What has happened to Gotham City across the river should serve as a reminder; the reign of terror is over. Let us work to practice democracy in our small city, protect it from terror’s return, and honor the memory of those who are gone.
Shelley Miller
Hoboken taxpayer