Category Archives: Politics

Your Uneventful Town Meeting

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Things started pretty much on time.  I was there on time but lingered outside for a few.  I found a seat as the moderator was reading the warning for the meeting.  I didn’t miss anything I already knew.

The first two articles were to be voted on the following day at the town hall.  The first was the school budget, the second was a vote to remove the position of town auditor.  We are supposed to have three auditors but no one has run for it since 2004.  Not a critical position, apparently.  Or a desired one.

I was curious about what discussion might ensue regarding the budget.  There was some discussion about salary increases for town employees.  The budget called for a 5% increase in all salaries and a few people expressed concern that this was too high.  It does seen high.  Who gets 5% when most people have a freeze on their salaries?  The general budget passed anyway.

Other discussion points were why we need a new dumptruck after only ten years (they get worked hard and repairs begin to outpace the value of just paying for a new one), why the police budget included funds for a new car when it did the last two years as well (it is a regular part of that budget to plan for a new purchase every other year) and the wind turbine at the library.  This last started producing power last year but the electric line in that budget goes up every year.  “Is this thing getting us anything?” someone asked.  It provides 10% of the library’s power even as more use of the library means more electricity use.  That was installed at no cost to the town, so it is all essentially a gain.

The biggest discussion item was a petitioned article to vote to close the Yankee Nuclear Power Plant when it is scheduled to close in 2012.  There were some strong feelings on both sides, including discussion of how to replace the power that the state would lose and how much electricity costs might rise without the plant.  Ultimately it got a yes voice vote.  Many other towns voted on the same article and passed it.  I voted yes on this one.  What would we say if there were an accident down the line with this oldest (in the world) of active power plants?  This sure is bad to have all this radioactivity all over the place, but it sure was worth it to save a few cents per kilowatt hour?

And that was about it.  We voted to support local charities and the land trust and to set aside funds for conservation.  And it was good to see at least a sampling of fellow Hinesburgers.  Not enough people were there, of course, given the town’s population, but at the auditorium at Champlain Valley Union High School was mostly full.  It didn’t run all that late but, nonetheless, the voice vote to adjourn was the loudest of all.cy

Children on Inauguration Day

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Yeah, yeah.  I watched the inauguration like everyone else.  Let me tell you, I was inspired as all get out.  It was a double whammy of goodness.  First, Bush is finally out of office and he can’t get back in even with the Supreme Court on his side.  I mean, how could you not be happy about that?  The reign of incompetence has come to an end.  Watching his (tax-payer funded, can we please get this guy off the public trough?) helicopter carry him away from the capital, it was a sight of joy.

Second, we get a smart, eloquent, thoughtful individual into the White House.  After eight years of “I go with my gut cause God speaks to me through my gut,” that is a relief, let me tell you.  But we don’t just get someone who isn’t dumb, we get a leader who cares and gets it and understands he can make mistakes and can talk about and think about it.  Obama is going to do a great job.  He makes me believe that change really is possible.  Guessing by the number of people on the Mall today, I don’t think I am the only one.

But the point here.  I met my daughter as she got off the bus and the two of us went to pick up her brother.  Once we gathered him up, the three of us got in the car to head home.  As we pulled out, National Public Radio rebroadcast Obama’s speech from earlier in the day.  The first thing that happened was that my daughter said, “Daddy, can you turn this up?”  A little while later, my son, who wanted to hear about Barack Obama, said “This guy isn’t talking about Barack Obama.”  My daughter’s response:  “That’s cause this is Barack Obama.”

All that was good stuff.  I was happy that they were paying attention and might just understand some of what they heard and maybe even remember this day.  But here is the best part:  they actually paid attention.  They were looking out the windows but listening.  Maybe it was just Obama’s tone, but they were rapt.  I’m thinking if I want to get their attention in the future I can just play back this speech and they will start listening and then I can just slowly fade it out and start talking and all of a sudden they will be paying attention to me and they will do whatever I want just like I was the brain from outer space with my secret zombie army that will do whatever I command.

This is a historical day.  I want my children to remember it.  I wish I could just command them to remember it but I do not have the power of the space traveling brain and, as far as I know, they are not zombies.  So I will have to trust to more conventional means, like talking about it and listening to what they have to say about it.  Obama, in his speech, mentioned the importance of  “a parent’s willingness to nurture a child” to the fate of the nation.

I’m on it.  With these kids, it will be easier than it might.  As I write they are marching about the house chanting “O O Obama, O O Obama.”  I guess I get inspired more than once today.

Dumb Question, Elvis

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On the album playing now, the collection of Elvis Christmas tunes we only listen to this time of year, The King asks us this question:

Oh why can’t every day be like Christmas?  Why can’t this feeling go on endlessly?

I know this isn’t a serious question.  It is a question that most would say requires no thoughtful response.  I, however, feel that a response to the master of the swinging hips is in order.  Why can’t every day be like Christmas?  I’ll tell you.

If every day were like Christmas we would, at least in the good old USA, all be broke.  How could you have a Christmas savings club if you only had 24 hours, instead of 364 days, to save?

If every day were like Christmas, we would have massive credit card debts and even more, if it is possible, UPOs* filling up our garages and basements and closets.  Who needs another snow globe or bottle of aftershave?  Who needs another gift basket of high quality and delicious and useful Vermont products?  Don’t we have enough sweaters?

If every day were like Christmas, retailers wouldn’t have the bump in sales that comes from the end of the year spending blitz.  How would they survive if they had to depend on regular sales for their unsustainable continuous growth?  But, you might say, wouldn’t Christmas every day mean huge sales every day?  I am afraid not, as we would hit our credit limits, even those of us with FICO scores of 770.

This feeling can’t go on endlessly because then we would be so nice to each other that we would learn, as a collective population, to care too much.  We could not afford to make sure everyone had decent health care, or heat in the winter, or enough to eat.  That would be too expensive.  Then again, it might mean that all of us started to see paying taxes as our duty as citizens of a free democracy.  That, however, would mean that the Republican Party would go belly up.  Think of the job losses.

If this feeling were to go on endlessly, we would be happier, would we not?  Therapists would go out of business.  Big Pharma would lose millions in sales.  Then again, if we stopped spending so much on Prozac and Ambien, maybe we could spend more on junk to wrap up.  We could afford all those tasty and well-crafted Vermont products.  But that, however, would mean a lot of stress on Vermonters who would have a difficult time keeping up with the demand.  They would need things like Prozac and Ambien to make it through.

Can you see the problem here?

Sorry, Elvis.  It just can’t be.

*Unnecessary Plastic Objects

Staying Up Late to Watch History

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I had a busy day today and I knew I would have to get up early, but I love election night.  I always feel excited about watching what is happing across the nation.  OK, I understand I am not really watching what is happening right then, just the prediction of the summary of what happened throughout the day, but still, it is exciting and I like to watch it unfold.

Any election is somewhat historic.  It marks a transition of power that unlike so many in the world, is peaceful and (for the most part) fair.  Aside from attempts to keep people from registering to vote, most adults can register and then vote.  That in itself is pretty amazing.  This election was certainly the most historic in my lifetime.  Barack Obama came from a modest background to be elected president of the most wealthy and powerful nation in earth.  Not bad.

I watched Fox News throughout the night because that is the only channel we get that does not have a double image or simply fuzz.  We do not have cable or a satellite dish (why pay at least $30 per month to get a few channels we want and 40 we don’t?) so we make do with what we can receive.  We get our news from The New Yorker, Mother Jones, The New York Times and lots of online sources.  Television news usually doesn’t make the cut in terms of quality or quantity.

But last night I wanted to watch, to see things unfold with sound and pictures.  I was glad I did.  I was skeptical of the Fox News coverage, which seemed to be focused on being the first to report who won each state.  At every milestone they would call a winner for several states.  At 10:00 they were calling the winner in states where polls had just closed.  Literally no results were officially in and they were predicting a winner for the presidential race.  It was hard to believe.  Remember Florida?

At 11:00, right when polls closed on the west coast, and with two states’ polling places still open, they announced Barack Obama the winner.  I was at first, again, skeptical but soon understood that I no longer had to wonder if this man would pull it off.  He did.  And come January, we will have our first president to break through the color barrier.   That is one for the history books.  I had considered going to bed once I heard a result, but I realized I needed to be a witness, in the moment, to history.

That is plenty to celebrate, but Obama’s speech made me cry.  He was humble and honest and inspiring, not because he turned out the usual political jargon, but because he understood that this moment is only partly about him.  It is about this nation and what we have the potential to become.  It is about moving forward in a new and positive way.  He showed in that speech that he understands that we need to make sacrifices and that we all need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.  We can’t sit back and wait for him to do it.  We need to be the change agents ourselves.  I was moved that he said that this is really just the opportunity, the chance to change things.  His election is not change.  We need to make that happen.

He inherits some damaged goods.  I can’t imagine doing the amount of work he will need to do to begin the process of healing the wounds of divisiveness we have faced internally and to create a new image of the United States in the world.  i was dumbfounded when George W. Bush was elected the first time.  i couldn’t even believe he had become the nominee.  I was doubly baffled when he was elected to a second term.  We got what we chose, and I hope enough of us can see that now.  We have work to do and I believe our new president can see much of what needs to be done.  Whether we can really get it done, well, that is up to you and me.

Voting Day

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I have been looking forward to voting and, like thousands of other Vermonters, and millions of other United States citizens, I did so today. I made sure to have the car with four wheel drive so I could take the back way to the polls. Like everywhere else, high turnout was expected here in Hinseburg, and I wanted to avoid a line of traffic on Route 116. So I went the bumpy way.

I brought my daughter with me. She got off the bus and then we waited about an hour before we left. She needed a snack and a break before we headed out. I was excited to vote and was itching to get out there but I was patient. My morning was too busy to get to the town hall to vote so I had planned on doing so in the afternoon. That meant my daughter could come along.

There was plenty of parking in the lot below the town hall and the place was not busy. As we walked in, I overheard one of the poll workers tell a voter that she “must be special,” joking, because she got to go to the Chittenden 1-2 district table to get her ballot. I went in an noted that I must be special as well. Here was the irony: a small fraction of voters are in my district but I had to wait behind one person while no one was getting a ballot from the five poll workers for Chittenden 1-1.

It was not a long wait. My daughter and I found a booth (open, no curtain here, but private enough) and I marked my ballot. I was proud to be able to vote across parties for local races. i voted for Barack Obama (as I write the New York Times reports that so far 66% of Vermonters voted for Obama–not bad for the whitest state in the union) and it felt great to finally be able to fill in that oval. I also voted for my former state representative, Gaye Symington, for governor, although she has had little chance of winning.

My daughter fed the ballot into the electronic scanner and we each took an “I Voted” sticker. We got a couple of donut holes (she made sure to take one for her brother, who we were headed to pick up after leaving the town hall–I love her for that kind of thing), thanked the poll workers, and headed back out. The whole process took all of ten minutes. There was a line of traffic heading into town as we left town but we skirted that problem.

My daughter asked me later who the first president was as well as who “the last” president was. She asked me more about his last president. What could I say? I just told her that some people are good at their jobs and some people are not and that he was not all that good at his. We talked about that for a few minutes, with me struggling to explain national politics to a child whose first experience was a mock election at school today. I am sure we will have more such conversations.

It looks like a good bet that my children will remember Barack Obama as the first president of their lives. That is historical and powerful. It is amazing. And I am happy to be part of it.