It wasn’t hard to walk away from the Inaugural Ceremony on Monday night feeling good about Somerville. Many wonderful things have happened to our community over the past four years although we have quite the collection of characters with a wide range of political ideologies. Forget for a minute (we will try) about the newcomers vs. the old school or the PDSers vs. life-long residents – this is a community that comes together in good times as well as bad and knows how to move itself ahead.

It’s easy to stand on a soapbox somewhere and spout off ideas about how the government should be run – it’s another thing to actually get into the mix. No, we aren’t saying that because one of us is an elected official, it is simply the truth. Local politics, for years and years, was run on the concept of ‚Äúthis is what I have – this is what I want‚Äù – today, as we tackle national and regional issues at such a local/personal level, the bridge between imagination and reality has become so minute that the term ‚Äúevery vote counts‚Äù has never been more appropriate.

It wasn’t a big surprise to hear the new Chairman of the School Committee, Paul Bockelman, speak about the issues ahead for that body – the aftermath of the fire at the East Somerville Community School with take months to deal with – and even longer for that educational ‚Äúcommunity‚Äù to recover fully. There will be little else the School Committee will do this year, but that’s plenty.

The new President of the Board of Aldermen, Dennis Sullivan, has charged into his new role with the tenacity and drive of his predecessor Bob Trane, but with two issues to champion (no pun intended) – police substations and Engine 4. That last one is sure to cause some controversy, so it will be fun to watch the sparks fly.

It was nice, and not shocking to anyone who knows Mayor Joe, to listen to him pledge to rebuild the East Somerville Community School, to continue with far reaching local issues like green building, preservation of open space, smart development and being more environmentally friendly as a community. One of us had the chance to talk to someone who just moved to this city from Revere a few months ago – who walked away from the ceremony the other night so impressed, she proclaimed ‚ÄúI’m proud to say I live in Somerville.‚Äù So are we, so are we.