Last night I had the privilege of chairing the caucus of the Georgetown Township, where I live. This was my second year at the privilege and it went well. We had four positions to fill: a chairperson, two supervisors, and a treasurer. The turnout was small, which is too bad for our experiment in self-rule, and the nominees for the open positions were few. It’s a lot of work to serve one’s fellow citizens and, yes, the positions are paid–but not much. Townships deal with keeping up the roads and seeing to it that we have fire protection. (The latter is no small item; fewer people are available for volunteer fire and first responder duty so small fire departments and ambulance services are trying to stitch together webs of shared departments.) There are zoning issues and building permits that need approval prior to going to our County. And sometimes there is a shouting match, such as a recent dispute over wake boats/wake boarding and the damage they can do to shallow lakes, especially. In this instance, the shouting was not directed at the Town Board members, unlike the anger unloaded by people upset about their property re-assessment and its higher value reflected in their property tax.
I have respect for those who serve us despite the negatives involved and I am struck by the importance and even the symbolism of this simple democratic process: we gather together, we nominate people we choose as those who will serve us, we vote to determine who those people will be, and then we move on with the jobs that need to be done. It’s government from the bottom up!