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Asbury Park
Press
Diversity key to
town's success
TOPIC OF THE DAY:
Neptune's mayor
Gilbert H. Caldwell,
app.com, January 9, 2008
Fifty years ago, I graduated from
Boston University School of Theology. I moved to Pembroke, Mass., to serve
as minister of two Methodist churches and experienced the much-acclaimed New
England town meeting. At Neptune Township's 2008 organization meeting, to
my surprise, I saw the best of the town meeting concept.
As a former Ocean Grove resident interested in its debate over the scriptural
correctness of same-gender civil unions, I wanted to be present for the
swearing-in of Randy Bishop, who is among the first openly gay mayors in New
Jersey. A speaker during the public comment period said, "Despite the
concept of separation of church and state, Neptune Township has a Bishop as
mayor."
The laughter was a marvelous testimony to a spirit that suggests residents would
rather "major in the majors than major in the minors" (the minors being their
mayor's sexual orientation).
I sat among people who represented the rich racial, gender and socioeconomic
diversity that makes America America. The township's leaders and citizens
were not being distracted by the fact they have the first "Bishop" as mayor and
instead are responding to the challenge to create a living, breathing and
thriving community.
Neptune has every right to be proud of Bishop, not because of his name or his
sexual orientation (or his hairstyle), but because Bishop has the capacity and
commitment to build on successes of his predecessors and guide the township into
the future.
James Russell Lowell wrote, "New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient
good uncouth." The people of Neptune seem to be mature enough to realize
this is a new day; this is the 21st century!
These words in 1 Corinthians 13:11 describe the maturity and forward spirit I
felt at the meeting: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to
childish ways."
At the organization meeting, I was among adults.
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