EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was published in Townbroadcast in January 2012 during the first week of its existence.

by David T. Young, editor

Wayland is only one example of what Ross Perot used to say, “That’s what’s wrong with this country.”

We’ve lost our sense of community, just like so many other towns, villages and cities across this once great nation. We’ve somehow been conned into thinking it’s every man (or woman) for himself (or herself) and we can’t trust anyone except ourselves and perhaps those closest to us. We don’t know our neighbors any more, except for a fleeting nod or greeting as we rake our lawns or blow snow out of our driveways.

We’ve lost this sense of working together for the common good. Sociologist Robert Putnam, in his ground-breaking book “Bowling Alone,” outlined how people in communities have retreated into themselves. They come home from work, eat dinner, watch TV, maybe get on the Internet and go to bed. On weekends, they watch sporting events, do household chores or go to the malls 30 miles away too often to buy stuff they really don’t need. Few any longer join community organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis, the Lions.

Such is American life in the early 21^st century. It’s a long way from mid-20^thcentury, when despite the fears of nuclear holocaust, Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living in this planet’s history, all with reasonable assurance of certain rights and freedoms. We built the greatest society in history, and then we let it slip away from us because we quit paying attention to what mattered and instead, in the words of Neal Postman, spent way too much time “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”

The rise of corporate influence in our lives, through amazingly effective marketing and public relations techniques, turned us from citizens into consumers. By the summer of 1979, President Jimmy Carter, in his ill-fated “malaise” speech, remarked on television that we had come to define ourselves not by who we are, but by what we own. Rampant materialism then was beginning to show its social costs, particularly in oil consumption, and then things really took off in the “greed is good” ‘80s.

Working together for the common good came to be viewed as communism, collectivism and socialism, even though the Bible’s New Testament reported the 12 apostles, after Christ died, worked together with the formula “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

So that brings us to the mission of the idea of a Wayland Townbroadcast. This is a proposed on-line site with the goal of bringing the Wayland, Hopkins and Martin communities back together in some way, much like the dearly departed Wayland Globe did about 40 years ago. The Globe fell victim to the same process as what killed businesses such as local restaurants, hair salons, discount retailers, banks, insurance firms, etc. They were absorbed or replaced by larger institutions much further away. And the larger and further away they were, the less they really cared about the local town. The name of the game today is to make profits, give the people less and charge them more.

Wayland Townbroadcast is a sincere, if feeble, attempt to recapture something we’ve lost from American society’s glory days. It is an effort to get the people of these three towns to get to talking about where we live, how we can make it better and how together we can faces challenges that certainly are here already and will continue to come.

NOTICE TO ALL READERS: Please understand the difference between a story, a column and an editorial. A story is a factual account of something that has happened. A column is much like the author sitting down with the reader as a friend periodically to discuss candidly sometimes personal perceptions and reminiscences. An editorial is an opinion piece that states a point of view and often serves as a call to action. But it’s just one man’s opinion. If you don’t like what I say, feel free to use the comment section or send a letter to the editor.

As an old friend of mine once said, “Democracy is an ongoing argument.” And when we stop arguing, it might mean we don’t care any more.

Ross Perot would tell us, “That’s what’s wrong with this country.”