Where has all the friendliness gone in Leyden?

Once again, and to my great dismay, I am drawn to reflect on recent events as they have been reported of our beautiful town of Leyden. Where has the cordiality and friendliness gone that once existed here? Items go missing from the Town Hall, and though it seems that folks had a pretty good idea as to who may have taken them and why, town officials apparently chose to notify the police and/or the Recorder first, rather than just pick up the phone and call some of the people who they thought might have the answers.

Then it was reported that “a formal letter” would be written to ask those folks about it. A formal letter? Really? A simple neighbor to neighbor phone call wouldn’t have served the purpose? Have we gone so far astray that we can’t call our neighbors?

And then we read that for the first time in recent history the town had charged the church to use the town common for, of all scandalous things, an Easter egg hunt for the children. Come on! Town officials claimed they were “citing state law” for making that decision. Again, come on! Do you really believe that the state cared one iota about it, especially since all those past Easter egg hunts took place without the state getting too riled up about it?

And then we have a town official describing Leyden as akin to the “Wild West.” With all due respect, it is in my mind a most inapt, if not downright disturbing, characterization. Is that how we want to present ourselves to others? So here I am writing this letter, no doubt contributing to the divisiveness that has descended on our beautiful Leyden. I am not pleased with myself for doing so. But I am also not pleased about what has been happening to what was once our generally friendly, welcoming, and cordial town. I would not have been happy with myself had I remained silent. We are better than this.

Jerry Levine

Leyden

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