Today was Town Meeting Day - an awesome display of "from the floor" democracy. Smaller towns elect officers and school board officials and dog catchers, they pass budgets, and offer up opinions on the quality of road plowing and law enforcement, all from a public meeting. Many towns still offer up a covered dish lunch and Girl Scout cookie sales.
Larger towns, or those who have chosen to move forward from the old-timey tradition do their business by Australian ballot, with town budget items and community positions sharing ballot space with local school and road repair budgets. People here still want to keep tight control on everything, even if maybe (BLASPHEMY!) those things might be better handled bureaucratically.
One of the other features of Town Meeting Day is that with the proper warning (for meetings) or petition signatures, just about anything can and does get voted on. Take, for instance, the nuts down in Brattleboro. These are the same people who don't feel the need to have, let alone enforce any sort of law suggesting perhaps people keep their clothes on. On Main Street. Downtown. If you haven't heard about their latest brush with greatness ;o) I'll leave you a link.
4 comments:
LOL, this is one of the things I love so much about Vermont...the government is run in a manner that lets everyone participate (even the kooks).
I am charmed.
For all the warts and bumps in the road, it's wonderful that people are so interested and active in the political process.
I adore the people of Vermont. Crazy or not it's so refreshing to have people follow through politically no matter what. Real government in action and that kind of "screw you" & "road less travelled" attitude make me feel proud that government still works in some places. People really get behind an idea no matter how goofy it may seem. Didn't some in Vermont want to become and independant country at some point in recent history? Last of the hippie nation lives and God Bless 'em
Gosh, I love Vermont...always have...=-)
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