The Lighthouse Keeper
ON RABBITS AND TOWN MEETING
BY DANIEL W. DRAKE ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
As I got out of the car at the house this evening, I noticed a small puff of brown fur on the grass. At the same time, I heard a strange sort of cooing sound coming from a nearby pine tree. Looking up, I saw Hawkeye, the red tail, sitting there, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Good dinner?" I asked.

"The best," he said. "And it was a textbook case of the do's and don'ts of being a rabbit."

"Please spare me the details," I interrupted. "I am still recuperating from last week's flu. I am glad you had a nice meal. The rabbits have been taking over and I was hoping that you would be able to do something about them.

"I must admit that your grain-fed rabbits are pretty tasty," Hawkeye said.

"Well, we don't do it on purpose." I was a bit defensive. "They just sit under the birdfeeder and get pretty well taken care of."

"And speaking of rabbits," Hawkeye asked, "Did you get to any of Town Meeting?"

"I did not," I answered. "I was kind of upset at first that I was not able to go. Despite my ranting against it, I admit to being a bit of a town meeting junkie and, even as sick as I was that first night, there was a tug pulling me there. But, by the second night, I had no idea which end was up, so there was no tug.

"And then, on the third night, I watched the second night on television. If I had ever thought that I wanted to be there in person, I was soon disabused of that. The only way I could avoid the nightmare was to go to bed. But I stayed up and watched until the bitter end. It reminded me of watching the rabbits nibbling away at my lawn "

"Clearly there is a problem," Hawkeye said, as he sat on the branch and preened.

"The numbers were awful. Barely more than five percent of the registered voters were at Town Meeting on the first night, and the second and third nights were a disaster."

"It was funny, in an ironic way," I continued. "At one point during the discussion of the Town Government Study Committee articles, Linda Williams complained that there was no one on the committee under fifty years of age, so it wasn't representative. Well, from where I sat, watching on television, of the 366 people who were present on the second night of Town Meeting, fewer than 10 could be identified as under 50. There may have been more, but the cameras panned the crowd a lot and there was no indication of any youth movement. So how is Town Meeting representative of the electorate?"

"Well," Hawkeye thought for a moment. "The argument in response to that is all the voters have the choice of coming to Town Meeting. If they choose not to, then so be it. Those who are in attendance will hold sway."

"Obviously, that argument has some merit, but, in the final analysis, if it is left at that, I don't think it is intellectually honest." I said. The issue is why are the voters, who take the time to register, not attending Town Meeting, or, for that matter, not even bothering to vote in the regular election.

"I'm not sure I can begin to answer the part about why people register and then don't vote. That is true everywhere." I went on, "But as far as Town Meeting is concerned, we should be able to figure it out."

Hawkeye, interjected, "Obviously, there are questions of schedules and priorities. But people have to figure those things out for themselves. I don't know that changing the schedule of Town Meeting so it takes place during the day or on a weekend would make a difference. In fact it might make matters worse."

"I know," I said. "People have to want to come. If they want to come, then they will find a way, regardless of the scheduling. So, why is it that they don't want to come?

"Is Town Meeting boring?"

"For most people, yes," said Hawkeye.

"Are the issues too complex for most people to grasp and deal with in the give-and-take atmosphere of Town Meeting?"

"I certainly think so," said Hawkeye. "You don't get the big picture. If you haven't been carefully following what has gone on before Town Meeting, each article is like a sound byte. It exists in a vacuum, and rises and falls in that vacuum. It is hard for a voter to get a grasp on what might be the right approach to the issue. And then there is the feeling people have that they, as individuals, really can't have any impact."

"Is there a sense that Town Meeting is really a forum for a few people to use the system to have their say, over and over?"

"So it would seem," Hawkeye said, "but like the other issues, this one is probably just a contributing factor to the over-all negative view of Town Meeting.

"In case you are interested in what I think," he continued, "it is that people aren't interested in being engaged themselves. They don't think they have the time, their interests lie elsewhere, their options are so much broader than they used to be and, like buying prepared food, they would rather leave the work to others. If they don't like the outcomes they will eventually do something about it - or maybe they won't."

"I think you have it Hawkeye," I replied. "Therefore, the question is whether the Town Meeting system works or it doesn't. From my perspective, it doesn't, because it isn't representative. 'Democratic,' maybe, but, in this day and age, not representative."

"Well," Hawkeye, who seemed to be getting bored with the conversation, "I suggest you talk to the Town Government Study Committee when it reconvenes in three years. At least until then, you got what you got. Maybe you ought to arrange to get the flu every year in the first week in April."

"In the meantime, please keep feeding the rabbits,"

he screeched as he flew away. I

The "Lighthouse Keeper" reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Nantucket Independent. Please send any ideas or comments to drake@nantucketindependent. com.