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Why can’t everyone just get along?

This week a new advertiser was in The Spotlight office and she made an interesting observation about her business.
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This week a new advertiser was in The Spotlight office and she made an interesting observation about her business.

She said, in the past month, she has met at least ten different people in her store who have moved to Princeton from other areas, hoping to build a life here.

Maybe they come because they are sick of the coast and traffic and rain.

Some of them are retirees, looking for a quiet forever home.

And others are young singles, couples and families, looking for a place to settle and put down some roots.

Sure this is highly anecdotal – certainly not census-worthy data.

But it’s hopeful.

Every single person that chooses Princeton has the potential to make a difference, contribute to progress, and be a friend.

So these people should be welcomed, hugged, and watered like beautiful flowers ready to bloom in the Princeton garden.

In small towns there is sometimes a painful split – call it the old versus the new.

Longtime residents of any community are liable to be suspicious of different ways and strange voices.

Newcomers can, in their enthusiasm for their new home, come across as overwhelming.

Isn’t that just awesome?

Princeton is a place where some families can trace their lineage right back to the founding families, and also a place that has room for new people and new ideas.

No person should ever be judged based on how long he or she has lived here, whether that’s 80 years or eight days.

Those people whose grandparents attended Princeton Secondary School? They provide a sense of heritage and stability without which any community is simply a shell.

Those newcomers? They provide stimulus for the economy, a different perspective and – without putting too fine a point on it – fresh DNA.

The worse thing a group could possibly do is to dismiss either group as unworthy, or lesser than the other.

What does this mean practically?

When someone new moves onto your street, invite them for coffee. Introduce them around, suggest they attend a meeting of one of the groups you volunteer with…the Legion, the rock and fossil club, the quilters and the naturalists…there are so many.

Hey – it’ll keep your numbers up.

And it could expose your circle to new ideas that work really well right here in Princeton.

Also very practically, if you are a person who posts on the local Facebook groups, take care with your words.

If a new person’s first impression of Princeton was left to some of the comments on social media it would be a wonder anyone would want to move here, ever.

Put another way and at the risk of quoting Jerry Springer: Why can’t everyone just get along?

Something to think about. -AD



Andrea DeMeer

About the Author: Andrea DeMeer

Andrea is the publisher of the Similkameen Spotlight.
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