A Place Worth Celebrating

Our modern American culture is all about tomorrow and not at all about yesterday. People don’t care so much about what you’ve done; it’s what you’re going to do that interests them — who you’re going to be, where you’re going to go. We don’t have much time for yesterday’s news. So this weekend’s wide-ranging commemoration of 300 years of Newtown’s history presents a rare opportunity to dwell on the past a bit without feeling as though we’re falling behind.

 Newtown’s Tercentennial Committee has organized quite a birthday party for the town. It won’t be so much of a history lesson as a tip of the hat to three centuries of community life. A re-enactment of a Revolutionary War encampment, a vintage base ball game, and a small fleet of antique cars will serve as reminders of the way things used to be, but mostly this weekend’s activities, culminating with the fireworks display Saturday night, will be about having fun. (Be sure to pull out and save the program of activities prepared by The Bee in this week’s edition.)

We hope that all this celebratory mixing of then and now will yield a few useful insights to help us with our future. Think back to that midsummer of 1705 when the first white settlers came up from Stratford in search of good land and a better life. This place, part of the Quanneapague (Long Pond) territory inhabited by the Pootatucks, wouldn’t be called Newtown for another three years, but we are fairly certain those original settlers concluded early on that it was “Nicer In Quanneapague.”

It is a testament to the stewardship of all the intervening generations over three centuries that people still feel that way. The search for good land and a better life in Newtown has, however, taken on a frenzied pace as more than a third of the town’s 60 square miles has been subdivided for single-family residential development in the past 20 years. At that rate, the last of the town’s vacant land will be developed by the time the town celebrates its 320th birthday. How will the next generation look back on our stewardship 20 years from now? Will they still be celebrating?

Planning for a better future isn’t all about tomorrow. We need an awareness of our history to remind us that unforeseen consequences can arise from every small step we take toward that future. Connecticut’s European settlers may have intended to live peaceably and cooperatively with the Native American population, but they brought with them smallpox, measles, and other infectious diseases that wiped out 95 percent of the state’s indigenous inhabitants. What unforeseen consequences will arise from the decisions we are making now as a community?

We know a lot more now about causes and effects than we did 300 years ago. As we go about deciding who we’re going to be and where we’re going to go, let’s be mindful of who we were and where we came from. Remembering just may be the golden key to the future.