Local politics gets . . . nice

So, just to finish my home-owner's association story . . . it turned out to be a remarkably tame affair. I had been led to believe that this could be an explosive knock-down-drag-out struggle between the build and don't-build factions . . . and absolutely none of it came to pass. As it turned out, everyone was in nearly complete agreement. Once all the details had come out about why the exceptions were needed (for a disabled child to have full access to the house) nobody had any objections at all to the proposed construction. The supposed cabal of long-time residents on the architectural review committee turned out to be three people who had only considered two proposals in the last seven years, and who had absolutely no stake in keeping the job. The supposedly fractious neighbor turned out to be the most supportive of mantaining unity and unaniminity in the neighborhood.

So what happened?

My first thought is that the fellow who brought all this up completely misread the whole situation. He thought he was about to get stuffed by some heartless assholes, and so he got lawyered up and started lobbying his position. All the carefully worded responses from the review committee were (mis)interpreted as cagey attempts to kill the proposal in committee and thus thwart justice.

My next thought was: my God, how can we ever hope for peace in the world, when less than a dozen families in one neighborhood can't even get their signals straight, and see war where there is only peace?

The one redeeming revelation is that everyone, by and large, does value peace and wants, above all, to get along with each other. This is one of the great virtues of "village morality" -- when you have to live with the same people for next twenty years, you find a way to get along.