… in a forest and no can hear it, does it make a sound?
That’s the classical question in philosophy. Here’s an analogous question for politics. If various groups make a political statement and no one pays attention, does it matter?
The first Tuesday in March is Town Meeting Day in Vermont. All the schools close and every locality, large and small engages in local politics the old-fashioned way. Up close and personal. Budgets are ratified. Bonds are approved. Or not. Roads are paved. Or graded. Here’s a photo of the building where Town Meeting is held in my hometown.
Lunch is often a potluck affair … in most communities. Everybody knows what everyone else will bring. The language of the meeting is ancient and timeless … a mash of Roberts Rules of Order and Old English. Votes are paper ballot, Australian ballot, and a variety of others. It’s quite complex. I spoke to my mother about an issue before this year’s meeting and discovered that in my parent’s house is a box with almost 40 years of Town Meeting Reports. This made me tired.
This year across the state many communities debated a resolution calling for the impeachment of the president and vice president of the United States. This was reported in the local papers (Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus):
Nearly 30 Vermont towns have called for President Bush’s impeachment on charges that he and Vice President Dick Cheney misled the country into war with Iraq and violated the Constitution.
But I have yet to see it come across the national wires.
You may think 30 towns sounds small. But there aren’t that many towns in Vermont. If you read that article, you’ll find my hometown described as a “tiny rural town.” Well. I’ve always known that, but it feels funny to see it in writing.
There was another article in the same paper which more fully described the debate in my hometown over the impeachment resolution. A schoolmate’s father is quoted. Old names I haven’t seen in years. This link may or may not work. All of the other links about town meetings in Washington County were working. I don’t know why this was having problems. But it’s interesting to me that people expressed strong opinions, emotional feelings. One of whom lost a son to the war, my former schoolmate is still serving. Then, everyone went to lunch.
I bet my mom took B&M brown bread. Or perhaps her maple cream pie. She’s been taking brown bread for 35 years.
