An article like the latest New York Times piece can bring new people into our community whose choices can contribute toward our little utopia or can suck the life out of it and destroy what they came in search of. To all us newcomers — please recognize that we’re a community of living, working people, not a fishbowl. Consider it an obligation to participate. Get to know your neighbors and your merchants. Go to public meetings, events, performances. Volunteer at something you’re good at. Shop at your local stores, even if it costs more and you think you can’t afford it. It’s all for your own good, in the long term.

At one extreme, this kind of far-away attention can bring that one rare person critically needed to lead a great organization. At the other extreme, it’s another 1-percenter’s second home, vacant most of the year, whose new owner in effect removes an entire family’s contribution from both our economy and our community. It’s a free country; all we can do is get the message out.

Too few folks appreciate that what makes this place work, what gives it the “feel” that people notice, is largely the folks who work here: the shop owners and employees, the working artists and hopeful artists, the farmers and contractors. They depend on you; they can only live here and make this wonderful place work if you live here and spend your money here.

So modern hippie or 1-percenter, please be a participant, not a spectator.

— Bob Powell