To The Editor:
“The death of democracy…will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment.” --Robert Maynard Hutchins
It was written in The Valley Reporter editorial of February 17, 2022, that we are fortunate to have so many of our fellow citizens take up the responsibility of leadership: ”…how lucky we are to have so many passionate, qualified, interested and informed people seeking public offices in our communities… We’re lucky they want to serve.” These folks are or will be our local leaders. It is up to voters to judge their qualifications and the soundness of their policy proposals. Choosing who among us will serve our community or what policies we support or reject is not a matter of luck but of the good judgment made by citizens. To flourish, citizens must take up the burden of citizenship in a democracy.
Democracy, like so much we take for granted, is not part of a natural order but a hard-won prize. Democracies are built from the ground up, requiring practice by active citizens. At its foundation, a democracy depends on dialogue among knowledgeable citizens addressing issues facing their community. This is what Vermonters have observed in Town Meetings for generations. In our Town Meetings we witness citizens giving practice to the requirements of democracy. It is here that a certain habit of mind develops and provides the necessary life blood of democracy. In the give and take of dialogue, sometimes heated, concerning issues facing the community, compromises must be made and the necessity of compromise understood. We come to understand that a vote that follows discussion is the end of the democratic process, not its full meaning.
Claims may be made that Town Meeting, an institution on life support, is a relic of the past and does not meet the requirements of modern society, their loss is merely a byproduct of progress so let’s move on. Consider a counter claim: While there may be other means of acquiring an understanding of the democratic process, the decline of Town Meeting undermines a seed of our understanding of what is required in democratic government that stems from our firsthand experience at the local level. It is from this experience that we witness competing interests and the need for compromise in our community; it is here, among our neighbors, that we see the need to sacrifice personal interests for the general interest and personal wealth for the commonwealth. It is here that we observe and learn the true meaning of legitimate political discourse.
Tom Dean
Waitsfield
