Sadly, this tradition seems to be on the wane. Attendance at these meetings has declined in recent years. It s important to remember that Vermont s emphasis on local control is in sharp contrast to other states, where people have grown alienated from their local government, and from their local communities, too. So we re lucky in Vermont. We can know our neighbors and we can argue with them, and laugh with them at town meetings and at the many selectboard and schoolboard meetings during the year.
Local control works because voices are heard and feelings vented.
But I would argue that arguing is good for politics, and vital to democracy. Of course all voices should be heard respectfully, but we must still allow for angry voices to be raised. They often represent people who don t feel heard but who nonetheless have something important to say and certainly have the right to say it. A Vermont politician recently claimed it isn t the Vermont way in response to an anti- Act 60 group s political ads. But I think it isn t the Vermont way to stifle political opinion.