The events witnessed at Lynnfield’s Aug. 18 joint meeting should frankly embarrass residents of the town.
“I have never before heard anyone yell like that at Town Meeting,” said Town Administrator Rob Dolan. “Usually, if someone yells, the crowd is able to self-regulate.”
We know town proceedings get to the heart of what people hold dear; in a very real sense, we’re all vulnerable to the people we vote for (or against) and when we get to local issues, that vulnerability compounds upon itself. It’s all well and good to hear about national mandates, but they don’t affect us, and our children, in the same way as the laws hammered out in our local town halls.
Before you cry communism or fascism, consider how privileged you are to be hollering at an elected official and member of your community. And to be threatening them. And defacing their property. You are at the seat of democracy when you participate in a town meeting, and you know it, otherwise you’d be at home watching “Jeopardy.”
Before these officials decided to deny your “rights,” they invited you to come to their place of work and debate laws and governance with you. It’s called public participation because the public is expected to participate.
Democracy is a study in vulnerability, and we know it’s hard to trust those in charge these days. At all points on the political chart, at all levels of governance, there’s a politician (or three, or five) who seems hell-bent on denying you your rights. There are people whose interests represent yours and those who don’t, and we create processes whereby those people convene to choose the best course of action.
We’re all supposed to be cool-headed and stoic as the Founding Fathers, their Enlightenment predecessors, and the Greeks who inspired them both. Obviously things rarely ever transpire that way, but when you threaten and intimidate and behave like a child, you’re essentially forfeiting your voice ― saying you’d rather have officials make these decisions without you.
“Sometimes government’s role is to be yelled at; sometimes we are the mechanism for people to vent their frustrations,” Dolan admitted. “But there is a line. The tone and the words, from Washington down to Main Street, have to change. Otherwise, nobody is going to want to participate in office.”
If the town of Lynnfield cares about democracy, if it wants to be seen as welcoming of everyone and if it wants to be able to function productively, it must address the chaos.
In the fall, Dolan said, the town will reconvene talks with community-advocacy group Lynnfield for Love, as well as push forward with its school community race audit. If the town wants to resume public participation in a civil manner during that process, we suggest it starts coming up with a plan now.
Hold debates so that members of certain interest groups can be representative of their hordes, rather than turning them loose on committee members. Start a task force that addresses hateful behavior around town, and make its intentions known. Address residents when the decorum of public process is violated.
In other words, communicate. Because that’s what democracy is at the end of the day, besides constant vulnerability — the strength to communicate in order to get things done.