Thank you for giving me this community award. I am tremendously pleased. I am also encouraged because it honors an idea - the idea of civic engagement.

As a community, we need civic engagement of two kinds: political and professional.

Civic engagement is built into the political world, of course. Our publicly elected officials and appointed citizens on boards and committees are fully engaged. To all of them, we owe thanks for their work on our behalf, and special praise when they try to make representative democracy work better. At the same time, we as citizens can try to make democracy work better by making it more participatory. To see this kind of civic engagement at work, look at the Princeton Future newspaper reports about what neighborhood residents, shopkeepers, church leaders, teachers, and policemen have in mind for the future - their social visions and their physical visions. By being more constructive in participatory democracy, we are trying to help our representative democracy. That is one of the founding principles of Princeton Future.

Civic engagement is built into the professional world as well. That is why we have professionals in public fields - public health, public affairs and law, civil engineering, civic design, and the most public of arts, architecture. We need their professional knowledge, experience and imagination - in the service of the community. To see this kind of civic engagement at work, look at the wide range of ideas generated by Princeton Future's task forces - about streets and walkways, squares and plazas, shopping and housing - that is, the fabric and form of our community. An open democratic society can be judged by how well it works with its professionals. Calling forth the best of our talents, creating a sense of collaborative design, has been one of the goals - and achievements - of Princeton Future.

Today, my thanks go to the Princeton community for being so receptive to the idea of civic engagement. Thanks to the hundreds of participants in Princeton Future - especially my co-founders, Robert Goheen and Sheldon Sturges, and the chairs of the task forces, Michael Mostoller, Alan Chimacoff and Yina Moore. And thanks to the Sandra Starr Foundation for this award in recognition of the results - thus far. But, stay tuned!