Editorial: A parade of Community Values

Published on October 02, 2009

Daily Hampshire Gazette & Amherst Bulletin

People will brave the elements for a few things. Amherst's 250th anniversary parade, we learned Sunday, is most definitely one of them.

The 90-minute procession was a spectacle to be remembered for years. We applaud the effort it took to put it all together, not to mention all of the other events coordinated this year by the Amherst 250th Anniversary Committee members and their subcommittees. These volunteers have laid down a serious challenge for future generations planning anniversary galas.

As a capstone on the year's celebration, the parade was a perfect moment in time to reflect on how far the town has come since its colonial period: where schools were once an afterthought, two colleges, a public university and a widely respected public school system now stand; where Native Americans were once persecuted, an accepting and diverse community thrives; and where a colonial territory once defaulted to an overseas king, one of the most democratic forms of government - Amherst's representative Town Meeting - holds sway.

So much has happened in the last 250 years, in the town, the nation and the world. One thing that has remained consistent is the care Amherst residents show for one another, as well as their sense of stewardship of the planet and the community they call home.

People who live in town are just as willing to lend a hand to a neighbor, such as the Habitat for Humanity projects on Stanley Street, as they are to help a Third World nation, as exemplified by the work of people like resident Yuri Friman and a new startup humanitarian/educational organization, Opportunities for Communities, featured on today's front page.

Students and professors, town natives and newcomers, radicals and conservatives, the aged and the young were on hand celebrating and reflecting the community's rich mix. Anyone standing along the parade route could feel the compassion and enthusiasm town's residents - and their Valley neighbors who joined the line of march - bring to all their endeavors.

Much of the town's diversity was represented in the parade last weekend. If you couldn't make it, take time to sit on a downtown bench or at an outdoor cafe table and soak in the parade of people. There will be something special and human and unique in each person who walks by. It is the best parade of all and well worth celebrating.

Happy birthday, Amherst! And thanks to all who contributed to the wonderful 250th memories.

Tony & Emmy Award Winning actor Ken Howard recently sent this letter in celebration of the 250th Anniversary

I've had the good fortune to return to Amherst many, many times since graduating from "the fairest college" in 1966. Revisiting it’s quiet tree-lined streets and interacting with its inhabitants always brings up the same unique feeling that I had when I first came to town.  It’s a feeling of safety.  There is a natural calm in the setting that lends itself to the three L's necessary for an undergraduate education: listening, learning and loitering.  The home of Emily Dickinson is such an appropriate place to engage one's mind, I have often felt the need to get back for awhile just to think more clearly, get some perspective on my so-called real life. That's where the loitering comes in. Amherst seems to have embraced modernity and weathered it as well. My wife and I have spoken often of living there again for a while, and someday we very well may. Until then, Linda and I remain constant in our fondness for the town of Amherst. (Linda a little less in winter!)

Happy 250th Amherst!

Ken Howard, Amherst College Class of ‘66