the squibix family blog

Generally I think that 9:00 on a Saturday morning is a much better time for local politics than after dinner, especially since local politics isn't quick! On the town calendar the meeting was scheduled from 9 AM to 9 PM. Of course, the problem on Saturday morning is that there's always other things to do, but while those things I absolutely had to do kept me from leaving home til closer to 10. So I missed the ceremonial opening. But there were plenty of seats, each on it's little square of socially-distanced plywood. What there wasn't was shade, and after a couple minutes I found myself hunching over with my back to the sun, trying to keep my arms in the shadow of my body. And I was super glad to have my hat and gaiter-type mask, which I was able to pull up to cover my ears. Town meeting may be fairly collegial and free of any signs of overt party affiliation, but unfortunately there was no actual big tent. I didn't get an "I Voted" sticker, but I do now have Town Meeting tan lines.

Most of the articles under consideration were about budgeting and zoning—important, but not really interesting to a wider audience. But the question that aroused the most interest was a suggestion that we replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day. You know I'm all for that, and given the back and forth in the town online newspaper in the weeks leading up to the meeting I wanted to be sure to be there to vote for the article. In person, too, there were lots of voices in opposition—some of which were just this close to outright racism—but when the time came to vote the for side won handily, without even a counted vote. I guess everyone who didn't like the idea had to say why, while those of us in favor were satisfied with just voting. So Bedford is now something like the 17th community in Massachusetts to make Indigenous People's Day an official holiday; that seems good!

We also authorized the by-right construction of Accessory Dwelling Units smaller than 1000 sq ft on conforming lots... does anyone want to hear more about that?

Then a little bit ago I let the dogs out, and after a few minutes Scout asked to be let back in. I can almost open the door from my seat here, so I didn't really pay attention to him. But then when Blue didn't follow right away I turned to Scout to ask him where his brother was—at which point I saw that his face was covered in blood. Yikes! I ran right outside and found that nobody was hurt, it's just that the dogs had killed a rabbit and Blue was eating it. Judging by the considerable amount of blood on Scout—enough that I had to get a wet cloth to clean him off—I'm sure he must have made the kill, and then have mean Blue take it from him. I gave him a rawhide chew to make up for it, but it's not the same. So yes, interesting times.

I started off with a department meeting at church. I love working with the kids there, and I get to collaborate with great people, so that meeting was entirely fun and relaxing. I was a little nervous going into the coop gathering, since we're kicking off a new semester and I wasn't sure if we were even going to have anyone in the group this spring. I'm a little more in charge than last year too, so I was paying attention. I needen't have worried: we had a fine crowd, and all of us were excited to share our ideas for the things we can do together over the next couple months. The calendar's already filling up—in fact, we have our first outing together tomorrow morning.

Town Meeting is a completely different feel. Where the coop group is looking to work together and came into the meeting ready to find common ground, there's lots more dissension in the high school auditorium when the politically active members of Bedford's citizenry gather to deliberate. It can be stressful sometimes, hearing people's strong views (especially when said views are completely wrong!). But again, I came out of the meeting feeling really positive. All the people there were passionate about wanting the best for our town, even if they disagreed about what that was, and while their arguments were occasionally passionate (or even sarcastic) there was also a sense of shared responsibility and camaraderie that was fun to be a part of. And I'm really glad that there are these folks going to every town meeting and holding the Selectmen to account; I'm the least fiscally conservative person you'll ever meet, so I'm there to vote for all the spending, so it's good that there are some grumpy old folks ready to make sure we really need a handicap ramp to the front of Old Town Hall (I hope we don't; that one didn't pass).

Still, as interesting as it all was it may have been a little much for one day. Today we went hiking. That's more my speed.

It turns out I didn't even need to be there, since it wasn't even close enough for a counted vote—though it was much closer than any of the other measures. My brief argument in favor probably didn't do much to sway anyone either, but I was glad to have a chance to say something. Especially after watching all those John Lewis clips this weekend...

I left at the three hour mark, with five or so articles still left to consider. It gives me new appreciation for the 12-hour sessions our national representatives put in when discussion contentious issues. It's all bigger and better down in Washington—but local democracy is pretty important too.

Other minor things contributed to my feelings of dislocation. I made some stupid mistakes in trying to bring my computer into the current decade through a series of updates—until a few days ago it was pretty much stuck in 2007. Despite that it was at least deeply familiar to me, and fairly well-customized; now with the botched update it's still out-of-date but strangely unfamiliar. And my camera's not working, so even when we did have moments of delight this past week I wasn't able to capture them for posterity (except with my crappy phone camera).

I don't mean to suggest those little annoyances are anything like our national catastrophe; far from it. But as I wandered around the house in a stunned daze I often found myself sitting down in front of the computer only to realize I basically couldn't do anything useful with it—it had no comfort to offer me. It didn't help that I've sworn off the news, because it turns out reading about politics online occupied maybe 20% of my time over the past couple months. Avoiding it now leaves me with lots of time to wonder what I'm doing with my life.

But we had a good day today, even if I didn't manage to photograph it. And I'm beginning to accept that my elderly computer is as updated as it's ever going to be, and make my peace with that. At least it won't ever change again! The national picture's no better, but I'm encouraged by what I hear from friends in person and online about how the election results has made them think harder about what they're doing to be kind to people and to make the world a better place. That's small consolation in the face of Tuesday's catastrophe, but at least it's a start...

I've never voted for a Democrat for president before, since I've always felt like there were better options and—especially since I've only ever voted in Massachusetts—I don't see any need to worry about tactical voting or even electability. But this time, not only do I want to send the Republican candidate to a crushing defeat in which every vote counts, I'm actually excited about voting for the Ds. Clinton may not have the best music (though you'll notice that her media and design team is immeasurably better this time around!) but as I slog through the disgusting rhetoric swirling around the campaign I'm more and more convinced that only one candidate this year offers a truly hopeful message of what we can accomplish all together.

I voted for Jill Stein last time, and I agree with her positions and respect her passion—but for whatever reason I've found her frustration and aggresiveness off-putting this cycle. I figure: Greens can't win, so why don't they take the moral high ground and talk about how their policies for saving the human race will bring us all together? As it is, maybe if we smash the Republicans enough the next four years will give politicians an opening to start seriously addressing climate change—to say nothing of racial and economic inequality. That's where we're at for national politics.

There's lots more to say on the subject, but my point here is really that politics is occupying too much of my time and brain space lately. So enough for now!

Two
I don't like to comment too much on mainstream politics here, but I have an observation on this Romney "47 percent" thing that's too long to tweet or whatever. I don't think that it will matter as much as Democrats hope, not despite but because of the fact that, regardless of income tax status, nearly everyone pays taxes of some kind. The Republicans are actually targeting poor people with that rhetoric, because the last thing a disadvantaged social conservative wants to hear is that the government is doing something for anyone other than him. "I may be poor," the Romney campaign hopes such a voter will say, "but at least I'm doing my part, not like those 47 percent people." They don't even have to say that those 47 percent are probably mostly black! It's the classic American political tactic of getting poor whites to vote against their own economic interest by pitting them against an imaginary "underclass", employed by the Democrats from 1877 to 1964 and the Republicans thereafter.

Three
Leah's post about Harvey and kids' church, accurate as it was, missed a crucial piece of context. Harvey is now working his uncertainty about the whole setup into regular conversation with people who aren't us: Grandma, his friend Will, a random mom at the playground. All are nonplussed. The last conversation went something like this:

Random Mom: "How old are you?"
Harvey: "I'm three."
RM: "Wow, you're big for three!"
H: "Yeah, but I'm a little bit scared of kids' church. I went but now I'm a little bit scared."

I was sufficiently far away that I wasn't prompted to offer any clarification.