We’ve spent a lot of time discussing presidential candidates and primaries. But there’s a part of our democratic society that we don’t hear a lot about… the town meeting.

My parents live in a rural part of Vermont… one of those towns they could easily make a tv series about. It’s filled with unique characters and oddities. Last week was their town meeting day. Once a year they close down the school, businesses, etc. to hold a town meeting in the school’s gym. The whole town attends the meeting. They cover every topic from how much to charge for a pet license to choosing a new school board member and local officials. The best part about it is, everyone feels comfortable to just stand up and share how they feel about any issue. And they do. (Which is also quite entertaining at times). There is no behind-the-scenes deals or spin doctoring… they just get together & discuss how the issues… and if there’s disagreement they put it to a paper vote. (I’m sure that you’ve heard about the two towns in Vermont that decided they would arrest Bush and Cheney for violating the constitution. I love this…)

I used to laugh at the whole event… thinking it was antiquated. Now I’m wondering if they’ve got it all figured out. I realize many towns are too large to have a town meeting, and it certainly wouldn’t be possible on a national scale. But I’m sure there are many ways to simplify some government practices and decision-making. And surely simplifying and purifying things would help eliminate *some* of the shady political practices. I think maybe they keep things as complicated as possible to keep us “dumb” Americans out of it all. And we’ve let them. They know what’s best for us and we’re too dumb to know better.  And many of us seem happy to live under this delusion…

Is there something wrong with being informed and involved citizens?