Sturbridge Town Meeting Wraps Up

You know you better hold onto your wallet when you go to the Town Meeting and the first car you see has an Obama bumper sticker, a 99% sticker, a Richard Neal sticker and an Elizabeth Warren sticker.
As you can guess I attended the Sturbridge Town Meeting, Part 2, last night and again it was a marathon session. Let me share some observations although it may take more than one post.

It’s All About Control

But this time that’s a good thing. Whether it was because there were less people in attendance or because he was more prepared or some other reason, I can’t say, but the Moderator kept the meeting under control this time. He seemed much more on top of his game tonight than he was two weeks ago. This is how the meetings should run all the time. Thank-you Mr. Caplette.

Closet Tea Partiers
As anyone who reads this blog (not that the title would give it away) I am a Tea party guy. I also believe that the tea party movement can have the most effect at the local level and this will work it’s way up. Controlling spending starts at your Town or City Hall. Last night I was struck with this observation. The majority of people out there have a total misconception as to what the tea party is all about. They have fallen victim to the negative propaganda fed to them by the mainstream media. Listening to the various discussions last night on most of the spending issues, there are more tea party folks out there than they care to admit.

Several people, who I have talked to in the past and have told me they want nothing to do with the tea party movement were advocating for two of our main principles: fiscal responsibility and smaller government. I found this extremely interesting and also told me the tea party is alive and well but somehow needs to get the message out that it isn’t what people think it is.

Fair Weather Tea Partiers
But then there are the tea partiers in hiding. The lack of confirmed tea party member sightings is very concerning to me. We all talk about making a difference, we all talk about how we have to change the tax and spend culture, we all b**** about our high taxes, yet where were we? Where were the tea partiers? In some of my pasts posts I received comments about changing the meeting from Monday night to Saturday, that question was on the ballot, where were you? I saw one person I could identify as a Tea Party member. One. (I apologize if their were more but the view is somewhat limited from the nose-bleed seats)
While I am still a believer and  that won’t change, I certainly question the commitment of others in our group. While it is nice to want to make big changes at the top, I think that deep down inside we all know that won’t make a bit of difference if WE DON’T CHANGE THE CULTURE! Changing presidents, while needed won’t make all that much difference. The next will be pretty much the same as the last. We need to develop a farm team, and it is at the local level we can do this. Sorry if this sounds like sour grapes because some of the votes didn’t got the way I would have liked, but it really isn’t The voters voted, to quote a smarter one than me “Thy will be done.”

Absolute Power

I’ll write some more posts on the meeting, but right now let me leave you with this. People should be very, very afraid when the chairman of the Conservation Commission uses the term “Absolute Power”. This term was used last night when he was arguing why the town should not accept a private road as a town road. Do we really want to grant anyone “Absolute power?” Is this really a road you want to go down?
Briefly the discussion was on accepting a road in a new development where the developer has not addressed some drainage issues. The Chairman wanted the voters to use the acceptance, or non-acceptance, of this road as a bargaining tool, forcing him to fix the problems. I am not a real estate lawyer but somehow this seems like it would be illegal. But not even that, the conservation committee or anyone else should not have this kind of power. From the discussion on the article, this drainage problem has nothing to do with the road which meets all the town standards. I also don’t know exactly what the advantage is of having the road accepted other than it will now be plowed, but is it fair to hold the tax payers on this road hostage as well? True there are only six houses on this particular road, but they purchased these homes expecting to have a town road. They pay the same taxes as everyone else, it is not their fault the developer is a, well, let’s say uncooperative.
Again, the bigger issue is the use of the term “Absolute Power”. “Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.”

Conclusion

I will write some more on the town meeting tomorrow. Again, let me say this meeting went much smoother than the last, and welcome to all the new tea party members even though they will refuse to admit it.