The town meeting used to happen in the Acton Town Hall. Now it is held in the Acton School gym. The reason for the change some years ago was the recent population growth created expectations and hopes that the Town Hall would not be big enough to hold all the new concerned citizens at one time.
I am grateful they switched to the gym, but not because there are more people coming to the Town Meeting. With more chairs set up, there is more space for the same 75 people to spread out. Town Meetings are wonderful places to see just how uninterested folks are in how their government operates.
The town meeting was a ho hummer, but less tedious that previous years. The vote on Tuesday however surprised me. And if it surprised me, I am guessing the old fart conservative cartel that has had a firm grip on town politics since, well, forever is all abuzz. A Left of Center, Gay Hispanic who is only maybe 30 years old snatched one of the two open Select Board seats.
I got to know this young man back during the state elections for the Legislature in Augusta. He was running for State Senate. He stuck his sign in ground I considered my yard without permission. Yeah, yeah, yeah, State law permits political signs on right of ways next to town roads. But locally, it is considered good form to ask the homeowner if placing the sign is okay with the homeowner.
We had a discussion. Daniel explained he had a right to put the sign there and I explained that I would not be held responsible if the sign disappeared. I remember asking him about himself. He was born in Central America and adopted by the Norwood family when he was a toddler. He has only ever known Acton as his home and public service is all he has ever wanted to do. As we talked, I decided I liked this young man. I left the sign in the ground.
He lost that race for the State House.
Tuesday, he won a seat on the Select Board. And another political career is launched, a baton has changed hands here locally, and Life continues to reinvent itself. Something tells me Daniel is just getting started.
There is hope after all.
Keep it 'tween the ditches ............................
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Only one tune came to mind when I thought about what song would dovetail into this post. "Changes" by David Bowie was of course the tune I thought of. It is a song about the only thing we can count on is change. And if we are smart, we will embrace it.
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