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Democracy by Suffocation
By Shaw Izikson, Winsted
Excessive sweat pouring out of people’s bodies, causing massive puddles everywhere. Sounds of heavy breathing continuously filling the room as each person desperately gasps for air. No, I’m not talking about a day at the YMCA. Actually, I’m talking about the last Winsted town meeting.
About a month ago, I attended the second town meeting of the year to determine the town’s budget. In my many experiences of attending town meetings in various towns all across New England, I’ve never had an experience where a town meeting was about as fun as going to Disneyland. In fact, many of the town meetings I’ve been to have been about as enjoyable as the last Star Wars sequel, where the movie patrons in the theater switched on their cellular phones over and over again to look at the time, hoping the movie’s two-hour running duration had passed.
This last town meeting was far from enjoyable. In fact, it was actually quite painful. Not because the speakers took a long time in giving their speeches, or because the town attorney showed up very late for the meeting (which made any proposal totally pointless until he showed up). Actually, the reason why the last town meeting was so painful was because, on a hot 86-degree summer night, the air conditioner in the school’s auditorium did not work. The reason why the air conditioner did not work was because a town official had ordered it to be shut off. This town official asked for the air conditioner to be shut off because he thought it would make folks want to get out of town meeting much quicker, therefore speeding up the meeting.
In that decision, he was not considerate to the members of the community in the audience who were elderly, as well as the ones who had health problems. One can’t help but wonder if the town government would be held responsible if there was a medical emergency caused by a situation like this. Of course, any medical emergency taking place during a town meeting would cause the meeting to end quickly, justifying the reasoning behind shutting off the air conditioning in the first place. Also, there would be at least one less person voting at the meeting, as well as one less person speaking, which would give an advantage to the town government. The less people at the meeting to vote, the more likely any proposals from the town government would pass without any argument or debate. There is a possibility that if you ask any town official about this, they would say that this has nothing to do with shutting off the voice of the town’s citizens, but rather that it has to do with "efficiency"—making the town government work faster at any cost.
Aside from the air conditioner being shut off, I also determined during the last town meeting that there seems to be a lack of respect for the town’s poorer citizens. I listened as senior citizens were telling town officials that the bulk of their Social Security was going to taxes, leaving them little money for food or medicine. Yet, after each speaker had left the podium, the town officials would continue on emotionless with the meeting as if no one had spoken. The moderator seemed to concentrate more on his watch to see if the five-minute time limit for each speaker had been used up than he was concentrating on what each speaker was saying. Of course, maybe he was too busy admiring the elegance of his timepiece to be bothered with anything else.
The underlying question in this situation is: as officials of a town government who say they work for their community, why, exactly, are they trying to dissuade citizens from participating in it? Also, what are citizens getting for all of the money they are paying in taxes? Actually, what are they getting aside from a school system that does poorly in academics, town officials who come to important meetings late, streets that are filled with vandalism, as well as empty storefronts and buildings? Of course, Winsted citizens could try to speak their mind about it at the next town meeting. That is, if they can survive it.
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