Editorial for June 7, 2007 edition:


Follow the leader

Flashback: Monday night, ABC’s Nightline, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson is on national TV discussing the soaring homicide rate — the worst of America’s 10 biggest cities — in what used to be the City of Brotherly Love. The commissioner’s message is simple but potent: When you see suspicious behavior, don’t sit back and do nothing. Take action. Call the police.
Though Margaret Philippi is not reporting murders in progress to the police, the citizen activist is doing something in her Far Northeast community, albeit on a less-drastic scale, that in the long run can have just as much of an impact:
In focusing on the little things that tend to mess up the quality of life in the Great Northeast — things like making public space free of litter, weeds and illegal signs, and even returning shopping carts to their rightful place — Mrs. Philippi is a wonderful role model for the rest of us. If there were such a thing as the Anti Couch Potato Society, she would be its poster child or maybe its president. She is the consummate community activist, and that is exactly what Northeast neighborhoods need more of. Every block should have one.
Just imagine what Philadelphia’s self-image, and, by extension, it’s national reputation, would be if every neighborhood — every neighborhood — was fortunate enough to have its own version of Margaret Philippi, a busybody who cannot just sit back and see no evil.
Whether the evil consists of open-air drug transactions or blighted properties, she takes matters into her own hands by trying to rectify what should be unacceptable situations. For allowing Mrs. Philippi to do their dirty work, the rest of the community owes her a debt of gratitude.
Those who get off their duffs to work for the betterment of their neighborhoods are the true heroes of society. ••

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