BRATTLEBORO-Hannah Sorila argues that the way to solve many of the town's social problems is to see ourselves as a community instead of a business.
At the same time, I can't help but wonder what it would look like if we saw ourselves as a community and a business.
Brattleboro is a business. In and of itself, that's not a bad thing. After all, it takes money to run libraries and recreation centers, to pave roads and put out fires, and to pay a fair wage to town employees...and to help those in need. (See the town budget at bit.ly/793-bratt-budget.)
So it's understandable that people disagree on which things are most important - especially when tax bills have such a major impact on their household budgets (either directly or indirectly through rents).
Brattleboro is also a community. We have parks, parades, performances, and low- or no-cost activities for children and adults. We have trails to walk. We have places to shop and drink coffee and have meals. We have sidewalks to walk on and those roads to pave.
And, of course, as Hannah points out, we also have neighbors who are simply too busy trying to survive to take much advantage of these community benefits.
Often, these neighbors are also - indirectly, if not directly - seen as apart from (rather than a part of) this community, in spite of the ideals held by many of us more fortunate.
I understand that we have different ideas of how our common "business" raises and spends its money and how our community looks and feels and cares for one another. I also have talked to people who are considered in power and those considered powerless, and both "sides" (a word I've been trying to avoid using) don't feel heard.
Honestly, I don't know what it would look like if we tried to see ourselves as both a community and a business. But, at a time when either-or and us-them approaches to challenges seem so prevalent, I hope we think about it.
I do know it involves listening more closely - that we all, as Hannah puts it, "open our minds and hearts to listen [without] fear." I do know that this is really hard work.
I've lived in Brattleboro for more than 40 years and, even in the midst of these understandable disagreements, I consider us to be one of the most creative and open-minded towns, in arguably the most creative and open-minded state in the union.
We can set an example. We can show what it looks like when people with strong disagreements and wildly disparate priorities work together.
Lord knows, it's something the rest of the country needs to learn.
David Blistein
Brattleboro
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