Tracy Kidder and my dad Tom West speaking to a room of people in 1983
A few people reached out to me after learning that Tracy Kidder died this week. I knew him when I was younger and he was friends with my dad who has been gone since 2011 so this has been an interesting time to be thinking back to the 1970s when everyone was alive and things were happening. This is a combination of a few things I wrote to people who have written to me this week. Continue reading
I was correct, Saturday was the most-attended Town Meeting in a long time. I worked the polls at Voting Day, telling people how to put their ballot into the tabulator for six hours. It’s repetitive work, sort of calming really. You get to see everyone in town after a long snowy winter and while I wouldn’t call it fun exactly, I do enjoy it. My kid ballots (above) were a hit. There will be a write-up of the results in the newspaper this week because it’s that kind of town. It’s really the first election in a while where things just worked. No major “wrinkles to iron out” for next year.
I stayed to count the votes (one of the two candidates I was supporting won, the police ballot I was not supporting also won, the library budget did not pass but that was what we were hoping for) and then headed home full of free vote-counter pizza with my social batteries recharged. Already scheming for what we want to do next year. Here is a pretty small set of photos of the two days, since I was super busy.
I’ve been fed up with a lot of things lately, so I’ve been working with a local group of do-gooders to try to increase participation in things like Town Meeting and various civic stuff which isn’t done by paid staff members but also has to get done by someone. Community engagement is kind of my thing, but it’s also challenging work because you get a lot of people with ideas and many fewer people who are willing to turn those ideas into action. This year’s Town Meeting, held a few days before voting day, on a weekend so that more people could attend, was (or felt like) the most well-attended Town Meeting I’ve been to since I started going to them in Randolph back in 2009. I’m not sure if that is thanks to the do-gooders or people are just mad about the police budget (too high) and the library budget (too low). At least no one was mad about the food shelf or the fire department(s) as they have been in previous years. I’ve become a person who stands up to speak, and my group of friends are the people who stand up to speak also. It’s a lot easier being activist about some things if you have a posse. It was a good day.
