To The Editor:
Ever wonder where all the wonderful gridlock of United States political system has come from? Scary part is it’s coming from Waitsfield and every other small town! Look at the latest Farm Bill, look at our town hall, notice the similarities. Perhaps the system of funding encourages this sort of behavior, but I’m not sure. Regardless, we are experiencing similar politics and gridlock in Waitsfield.
How we are funding projects can be easily abused by those so inclined. In our small towns we used to vote on all monetary matters and they were funded and projects created locally. Never had a problem balancing our budget; we had to. Now we have federal mandates without funding, we get grants, we have nonprofits, GMOs, lobbyists, people and representatives working inside the government, using a funding system that doesn’t work. But do these groups represent the people? What is the will of the people?
I was curious to see what the people of Waitsfield were thinking after the town hall vote, so with the help of Troy at the VG and with the help of The Valley Reporter I did a survey.
Two voting blocks in the survey with a #1 choice of the Farm Stand or Church would very rarely vote for any other option on this survey, despite having three other options to fill out. The majority of people voting overwhelmingly chose other building locations as first, second and third choices with the fourth choice frequently being the Church.
The Farm Stand was last; it was actually after the option of “other” for total votes. There were other ideas and locations that deserved great merit. Interestingly, the survey seemed to match the voting in Waitsfield. So, what happened?
Neil Johnson
Waitsfield
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