Despite moving around a great deal, I was an activist. I even managed to get myself elected to the 1992 Democratic National Convention, and I worked on Capitol Hill. But that was all volunteer, (i.e. no money) and when I started working, I found that not only did I not have as much time; I also started to lose interest in politics.
It’s not that I don’t care. But I can’t see the relevance of the infrastructural politics anymore. Locally, we have a board of selectmen and the full democracy version of the New England town meeting. So, you can go down to the annual meeting with all your neighbors and sit for 3-4 hours while they talk about everything under the sun and accept or reject the recommendations of the finance committee.
I went to a couple of town meetings in my prior town where they have a representative town meeting (you cannot vote unless you have been elected a “member” in your precinct) and for me, it was an irrelevant waste of time. I was new in town and it seemed most of the time was wasted debating trivial expenditures while the planned $50 million renovation of the high school had already been decided.
The town meeting may work well for the town, but it doesn’t give me any sense of participation or control over things. To really effect change, you need to get involved on the town committees. That is a serious time commitment and it is just not that compelling in a general sense. For long-time residents and retired or part-time workers, it makes sense. But I work in the city all day; I don’t have time to be that involved. There may be nothing wrong with the town meeting; but it is unrealistic to expect people like me will be involved in any meaningful way, unless there is a single issue that really gets my interest. A general interest in the common good, a desire to plant roots in the community…yes, yes, that is all good, but for me, I just don’t seem to find the time for that. Besides, how do I know if I will still be living in this town in 5 years?
My attitude is anathema to my sense of activism. It is selfish and superficial, I know. But it is a product of the reality of how my work and home life is arranged. I want to be involved…but I don’t want to be involved THAT much. I want to make a contribution on my terms. I cannot attend meetings during the day while I am working. I self-censor myself because I want the quality of my involvement to be worthwhile. I don’t want to just show up all uninformed with some off-the-wall opinion. And I don’t want to have to sit through hours of boring discussion of issues I don’t care about. So, I end up not being involved at all.
I suspect my perspective is a common one among creative professionals. Unless you live right in the middle of a community that is core to your identity, it is hard to get excited about the day to day workings of local government. When you commute–even a relatively short commute of 10 miles–your community may be nothing but a “bedroom community.” All you do is sleep there. But I want something a little more than that…I want to find a way to contribute with the small amount of time I do have, without having to sit through hours of boring discussion.
We need to create structures in our communities to facilitate participation from people like me. The town doesn’t need my opinion on 95% of the town warrant. And an opinion is not really participation if it is only voiced at the last minute, as the final debate is happening. But there are probably many ways I could help and gain a sense of involvement in my community.
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