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the good and the bad
Mar. 12th, 2008 11:58 amGood:
Attending the 232rd Annual Town Meeting for my small town last night -- standing room only in the new town hall meeting room, and 3-4 hours of discussion and voting. I love direct democracy. Besides voting for our town officers, we decided whether or not to approve, amend or reject every major budget decision for the town, and thereby decide how much we want to pay in taxes next year. So, for instance, we will get, after 20+ years of trying out various options that all failed to pass a vote, a ball field/civic center, with the town taking advantage of the buyer's market in real estate to buy a house, farm (blueberries, yum!), pond, and land/fields from a family who is selling, we will replace the town's 23+ year old fire pumper truck and 18+ year old Jaws of Life equipment (after a detailed account from the Fire Chief and intense followup questioning from various citizens about how this will save the town money as well as provide additional services), replace one of the police department's three cruisers (this one was very close, three more votes against and it would have been rejected), and amend the town's building codes. Oh, and the library will spend $12,000 to replace a dozen ancient and energy-inefficient windows and set aside $50,000 in a reserve fund towards an expansion we anticipate we'll need in a few years.
Last week was the big annual town School Board meeting, and I stood up and spoke out pretty passionately about the major contentious issue on the agenda (school expansion/renovation), and I'm told was quoted in the paper, and at least two dozen people who I don't even know made a point to come up and thank me for what I said when I ran into them in town this past week. And that was kind of weird, but it's true -- what you say and do does matter more in a small town, and people do listen to their neighbors here. I do feel like my voice, like every voice, matters.
This is, in my mind, how democracy is supposed to work -- everyone has a voice and a vote, and we all sit there and discuss each issue together until every voice is heard. I have no idea how this could ever possibly scale to larger than small-town size (and that's why representative government is the norm for larger towns, cities and on a national level), but it seems to me that abstracting people from the decisions which affect them with several levels of bureaucracy and governmental bodies leads directly to the death of true participatory democracy and disempowerment of the people. It's way too easy to turn the power and decisions over to "them," and for "them" to feel apart from the people they supposedly represent.
Bad:
Today for the first time I spent more than $50 on a tank of gas (filling up the compact pickup truck, and the tank was almost empty, but still). It seems highly likely that gas will go up above $4/gallon this Spring, and no doubt will go up and down plenty, but on average will be higher still in the years to come. I hope this impacts demand, and people drive less, order less stuff that comes from far away, etc -- cheap gas just accelerates carbon emissions and global climate change. But I also know that high gas prices (and heating oil, and natural gas, a big deal here up nawth) affects the poorest people hardest. And our dependance on petro for food production and distribution, along with the false promise of corn-based ethanol (and the diversion of farmland, food and feed corn for fuel) means that basic food costs will go up and up as well, and that's going to be a hardship for many folks. Choosing between the trip to Disneyworld and the latest Chinese-made big-screen TV is one thing -- chosing between heat in the winter and food is another.
It's hard to see this coming, and not wish I could do more about it globally, but it seems that my own focus narrows over time and is more and more local. Maybe that's all we can ever change -- as Pirsig wrote, starting with your own heart and head and hands, and moving outward from there -- but in some way it still feels like giving up.
Attending the 232rd Annual Town Meeting for my small town last night -- standing room only in the new town hall meeting room, and 3-4 hours of discussion and voting. I love direct democracy. Besides voting for our town officers, we decided whether or not to approve, amend or reject every major budget decision for the town, and thereby decide how much we want to pay in taxes next year. So, for instance, we will get, after 20+ years of trying out various options that all failed to pass a vote, a ball field/civic center, with the town taking advantage of the buyer's market in real estate to buy a house, farm (blueberries, yum!), pond, and land/fields from a family who is selling, we will replace the town's 23+ year old fire pumper truck and 18+ year old Jaws of Life equipment (after a detailed account from the Fire Chief and intense followup questioning from various citizens about how this will save the town money as well as provide additional services), replace one of the police department's three cruisers (this one was very close, three more votes against and it would have been rejected), and amend the town's building codes. Oh, and the library will spend $12,000 to replace a dozen ancient and energy-inefficient windows and set aside $50,000 in a reserve fund towards an expansion we anticipate we'll need in a few years.
Last week was the big annual town School Board meeting, and I stood up and spoke out pretty passionately about the major contentious issue on the agenda (school expansion/renovation), and I'm told was quoted in the paper, and at least two dozen people who I don't even know made a point to come up and thank me for what I said when I ran into them in town this past week. And that was kind of weird, but it's true -- what you say and do does matter more in a small town, and people do listen to their neighbors here. I do feel like my voice, like every voice, matters.
This is, in my mind, how democracy is supposed to work -- everyone has a voice and a vote, and we all sit there and discuss each issue together until every voice is heard. I have no idea how this could ever possibly scale to larger than small-town size (and that's why representative government is the norm for larger towns, cities and on a national level), but it seems to me that abstracting people from the decisions which affect them with several levels of bureaucracy and governmental bodies leads directly to the death of true participatory democracy and disempowerment of the people. It's way too easy to turn the power and decisions over to "them," and for "them" to feel apart from the people they supposedly represent.
Bad:
Today for the first time I spent more than $50 on a tank of gas (filling up the compact pickup truck, and the tank was almost empty, but still). It seems highly likely that gas will go up above $4/gallon this Spring, and no doubt will go up and down plenty, but on average will be higher still in the years to come. I hope this impacts demand, and people drive less, order less stuff that comes from far away, etc -- cheap gas just accelerates carbon emissions and global climate change. But I also know that high gas prices (and heating oil, and natural gas, a big deal here up nawth) affects the poorest people hardest. And our dependance on petro for food production and distribution, along with the false promise of corn-based ethanol (and the diversion of farmland, food and feed corn for fuel) means that basic food costs will go up and up as well, and that's going to be a hardship for many folks. Choosing between the trip to Disneyworld and the latest Chinese-made big-screen TV is one thing -- chosing between heat in the winter and food is another.
It's hard to see this coming, and not wish I could do more about it globally, but it seems that my own focus narrows over time and is more and more local. Maybe that's all we can ever change -- as Pirsig wrote, starting with your own heart and head and hands, and moving outward from there -- but in some way it still feels like giving up.
