By Brent Wiggens

Living in a representative democracy for a while, one tends to become a little like a fish in water: we take the stuff for granted until it starts to dry up or become toxic. Our local democracy is showing the effects of a drought in participation, both in attendance at public meetings and in the willingness of people to take on the responsibilities of representing their interests and those of their neighbors on town bodies. The hazards of serving are all too evident in these uncertain and contentious times. No one needs to be shamed into attending or serving. That is not my purpose. I believe that a good start would be to remove unnecessary impediments to participation and to remind ourselves that what sometimes seems a burden, or perhaps just a right we choose not to exercise, is also an opportunity to be sure that the opinions, values and the material and spiritual interests of people just like ourselves are taken seriously in the way our town is run.

I speak only for myself here, but while discussing this reluctance to take part with friends and neighbors who are also concerned with how it may adversely affect the future of our town a few ideas for addressing it have emerged. 

• The opportunity to access video recordings of all town public meetings promised to make it possible for people to be informed of the proceedings of more meetings than they can attend in person and to respond to them. Time flies and if these recordings are not quickly made available to the public their usefulness as a tool of democracy is reduced to nothing more than an archive of done deals. The timely posting of these recordings to CTSB ought to be made a priority. 
• The citizens of this town should be trusted and allowed to speak without someone giving them the hook at the end of a couple of minutes. All who wish to speak should be heard. Oh, some of us tend to prattle a bit, but no one is going to filibuster a town meeting. If we can’t slow down enough to hear our neighbors out, we are moving too fast for Stockbridge, even in the 21st Century. 
• People have become aware that substantive bits of town business that ought to be done in sunlight and known to the public are happening in informal “planning sessions” that are not public and are neither recorded nor are minutes published for them. This creates the perception that the participation of the public is something those charged with making town government work would rather do without. And who wants to feel they are a fifth wheel? This is just backwards, of course, but it takes patience to work with the public. We must insist that all parts of town government be patient enough with us to respect and encourage our participation and our right to know what is being done in our name and with our taxes.