BRATTLEBORO-I was first elected as a member of Representative Town Meeting (RTM) in 2011, when I was 18. That first year, I walked into a room of people who came to participate in a challenging but worthy mission: to listen to others and deliberate to make the best decisions for our town.
Since then, I have participated in both open Town Meetings in Westminster and Representative Town Meetings in Brattleboro, where I returned as a representative in 2021.
In all these meetings, we have often succeeded in this mission and sometimes fallen short. However, we have always come together to talk, listen, and deliberate.
This opportunity for connection is why a Town Meeting, either representative or open, is essential for our town.
Our national politics are rife with people reacting instantaneously to people or ideas. At the ballot box, we anonymously check “yes” or “no.”
But in a Town Meeting, we are forced to take time to listen before making a decision. This practice resists our society’s current obsession with speed. When we slow down to honestly deliberate, we become closer as a community.
At Town Meeting, even if it doesn’t change how we vote, the discussion can alter how we understand an issue. Sometimes, we hear arguments from someone we assume we disagree with and realize that they have made a point that speaks to our lives. Sometimes we still vote in opposition to someone, but we better understand why they disagree with us.
This process also comes with the responsibility to hold those we disagree with up as fellow community members who care deeply about the town. We connect as a community when we gather to listen and deliberate.
Australian ballot is an excellent way to elect town officials and respond to citizen petitions (as we are all about to do on this exact topic). However, there is no substitute for spending time in a room with fellow citizens to deliberate over our decisions.
It is difficult to balance the various pushes and pulls of our town. Our society is constantly pushing us away from face-to-face interactions with automation, AI, and the allure of efficiency. Perhaps our most powerful response is what people all over Vermont have done for centuries: meet, listen, and deliberate.
I urge you to support the continuation of a Town Meeting for Brattleboro, either in “representative” or “open” format.
Arthur Davis
Brattleboro
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