Baton Rouge, like so many cities our size, created our version of Live After Five several years ago. If you’ve never been, you’re missing out on a social experiment gone right.
A recent Friday evening was perfect: clear skies, cool weather and several hundred people of all ages and backgrounds just enjoying themselves, free from discord, political enmities and whatever happened last week at work or school. The band was great, the food was good, toddlers were playing together, moms and dads and singles were line-dancing, laughing and applauding and making new connections across the divide.
Opportunities like this don’t come along that often. At ball games, yes. At bars and over dinner in smaller numbers, maybe. But seldom do people congregate as perfectly just to enjoy each other as participants rather than just audience members.
I could see from the banners that the Downtown Business Association gathers a dozen-or-so sponsors to foot the bill for each event, but ask yourself, what do they get out of it? I’m guessing nothing but the good will it creates — not for them, but for us.
Congratulations to all of us and to Baton Rouge for seeing the value of bringing people together.
ROBERT KIDDER
Baton Rouge