A New Perspective: Change is constant

The one thing that remains constant in our lives is change.

I'm not sure who coined this well-used adage, but it came to me after learning of the recent power struggle underway within the Estates Area Civic Association.

Anyone who has been a member of any worthwhile association for any length of time has been through this painful process.

This particular association first formed in 1979, breaking off from the Golden Gate Civic Association, which formed in 1966. Members residing in the Estates felt they had different issues from the city folk and decided to form their own association to focus on those matters.

The East Naples Civic Association beats both of them, having been organized in 1955.

Over the years, all of these citizen associations have survived thanks to leaders and members willing to give their time and energy to the various issues affecting their communities, such as growth, land use, expanded governmental services and code enforcement.

Did every resident agree on those issues? Most definitely not.

Leaders came and went. Members came and went. But those who truly cared about their communities remained even when the group direction was not in keeping with their own personal wishes. They licked their wounds, pulled up their bootstraps and moved forward with the rest of the group. It's not easy and immensely admirable.

Thanks to this kind of leadership, our communities have benefited from beautified medians, improved governmental services, educational scholarships, holiday events, increased property values and watchdogs willing to keep on top of it all.

Without this kind of leadership, our communities suffer from neglect and attrition, lack of governmental attention, stagnant or falling property values, increased crime and code violations.

So in which community would you prefer to live and raise a family? It's not a difficult choice.

For this reason alone, I would suggest members of the Estates Area Civic Association set personalities aside, gather at the table and work out their differences. There are too many issues that this group agrees on to let one topic bring the whole association down.

The association survived a turnover of leadership in the mid-1990s and it will survive many more in the future. But together we stand, divided we fall. Think of the benefit to the entire community if a turnover were avoided, compromises made and a stronger group emerged? Now that's a challenge. Who's gonna take it up?