Editorial: 10 wishes upon a winter star

Towmonline

New Year's resolutions are overrated.

We suspect that few people actually sit down, spend some time in self-reflective thought, and come up with even one genuine, attainable commitment to do something differently or better in the coming 12 months.

Resolutions are more often a function of anxious spontaneity rather than deliberate forethought - they get made up on the spot, by people grasping to answer the question, "So, what are your New Year's resolutions?"

Therefore, rather than resolutions for Brookline in 2004, we reserve this space to make 10 wishes for the coming year in town. Not only do wishes seem more genuinely derived - many come from the heart - they are also preferable to resolutions because occasionally wishes do come true.

Our muse for this exercise is the astonishing canopy of winter stars - dominated now by Orion's Belt - all of which seem sharper and more radiant in the cold-weather months. We picked a star in the middle of Orion, upon which hang the following hopes for the town in the year ahead:

To recruit individuals of the highest quality and capability for two of the most important posts in the town: Superintendent of Schools and Fire Chief.

To welcome home Yang Jianli, a Chinese citizen and Brookline resident who is approaching his second year of detainment in a Chinese prison. When it's all boiled down, he is being held simply because he believes in democracy for his home country.

To see affordable housing construction agreements for building in Fisher Hill and at the site of the former Infant Jesus Church.

To not only publish the town's highly anticipated Comprehensive Plan, but to have anyone who cares about Brookline and its future actually read the tome. Those who pass up the opportunity to find out what's inside the plan cannot legitimately complain when changes mapped out in the document start to occur.

To either start the 4 p.m. sessions of the Board of Selectmen on time or vote to change the start time to 5 p.m. Countless citizens, petitioners, town department heads - even Beacon Hill representatives - are forced to loiter on the sixth floor of Town Hall, often waiting for 30 to 45 minutes until selectmen can scrounge up a quorum for the 4 p.m. session. The chronic tardiness is at the very least an inconvenience for attendees, and at the very worst a display of disrespect for those with business before the board.

To never again award a building construction or renovation bid (or any town-funded contract, for that matter) to a company or supplier simply because of a lowest bid, if that company also has ghosts in its financial closet. The Lawrence School fiasco provided a lesson that a contractor with a sketchy past (E.J. Sciabba) can somehow get certified by the state. That doesn't mean, however, that such companies must be hired by Brookline.

To continue to improve the TAB, maintaining a commitment to accuracy, honoring a first obligation to the truth, and remaining humble in the face of our chance to record and reflect something of Brookline's astonishing diversity.

To see some truly competitive political campaigns at the town, state and federal level. No one, challenger or incumbent, should feel as though he or she has a race "locked up" before the campaign season begins.

To continue to honor the service of those from Brookline who are serving in branches of the U.S. military and to celebrate their safe return to our town whenever it occurs.

To actually do something - rather than continue to talk about - to make riding a bike in Brookline safer and easier.

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Source: "Townonline".