BRATTLEBORO-On the way to a meeting, I encountered a 90-year-old retired businessman. We talked about shoes, and he talked about the past and what he hoped to do today. I winced when the conversation turned to current politics and when he praised President Trump's agendas. We disagreed.
However, we continued to talk.
We seemed to agree on two issues: that monopolies in the telecommunications sector is a negative, and that government oversight of the health insurance industry is a benefit to the people.
We need more of these types of conversations and interactions. Town Meetings, whether open or representative, are one of the vehicles to move conversations forward. Neither type of meeting will be perfect, yet the meeting itself is a forum for progress in the right direction.
Informational meetings can go only so far. They cannot formally change articles on the warning. Under Representative Town Meetings, some, not all, of the three districts have held discussion meetings. Attendance seems tied to whether or not topics of interest are on the warning.
The Australian ballot, as efficient as it may feel, simply doesn't cut it. It keeps us isolated and confines our answers to simple yeses and nos, thumbs up or thumbs down. No discussion. No communication. No progress.
Thank you for listening and for the opportunity to express my thoughts.
And finally, a heads up: there is a group circulating a petition to make sure that the option of Open Town Meeting stays on the table, so voters will be able to consider all the governance possibilities. For more info on that, please email: otm4bratt@gmail.com.
Robert A. Oeser
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at voices@commonsnews.org.