Are there things you love about Sag Hampton? Well, they're about to change. What are you going to do about it?

"Are you talking to me?" you're probably thinking in your best Robert De Niro Taxi Driver imitation.

Darn right, I'm talking to you.

Here's another question: did you know that there are heroes here in Sag Hampton? There are -- lots of them, but probably not enough. The heroes are your fellow citizens who voluntarily take responsibility for some aspect of community life. Maybe they volunteer for some board -- school, zoning, planning, architectural review, etc. Maybe they serve in an advisory capacity to local government, or maybe they've started their own watchdog organization. Perhaps they work to beautify the villages, or preserve open space, pure water, or local history. These people are heroes because they care enough to give of their time to accomplish something for the greater good. You may not always agree with their viewpoints, but you have to respect their commitment.

Unfortunately, there are never enough heroes. Most of us just assume that some one else will do the hard lifting. But the lifting is getting harder all the time. With the pace of change accelerating, Sag Hampton is at a tipping point, and a few heroes can't turn back the tide. It will take a considered and sustained effort on the part of a large number of people to ensure that our communities survive with some measure of grace.

So, again I ask, what are you doing about it? If you're not involved in some way with the life of your community, now is the time to get involved. Don't wait 'til it's more convenient...it will never be more convenient. Being a hero is inconvenient, always has been, always will be.

In the next two posts I'm going to present you with two issues facing the Sag Harbor community, and suggest some relatively easy ways for you to be a hero. [Confusingly, "the next two posts" look as if they're the two preceding posts because they appear above this one on the page. Just remember that all posts in the blog are in reverse chronological order. So, the ones I write next, will appear above this one.] Please read on...

Note: Since I do some volunteer work myself, you may be thinking that I wrote this so people would think I'm a hero. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that I didn't even make that connection until after I wrote the whole post. When I belatedly realized the implication, I was heartily embarrassed. At that point I considered deleting the whole thing, but ultimately decided to let you think whatever you want to about my motivations and let the post stand.