Editorial

We just don't understand

Did you know that you are stupid? I am too, apparently.

I attend all the meetings I can- some meetings are televised with participating citizens attending, others are small and quiet like the Joint Leaders meeting with only me as audience there. At meeting after meeting, through word and deed, I keep hearing the same refrain from our elected officials: "the citizens don't/won't/can't understand the issue/problem/situation."

The latest refrain came at the Joint Leaders Meeting on Wednesday, December 1. The Chairs of the Boards from Gray, New Gloucester, and the School Board, along with the Managers and the Superintendent, meet monthly. They discuss issues common to their overlapping electorate.

As School Board Chair Alan Rich was updating his peers about the Pennell issue, he said, "The issues surrounding Pennell are complex and difficult for newspapers and citizens to understand." He turned around and directed his comment specifically to me when he said newspapers, to ensure that stupid me did not miss his point, I suppose.

I have two thoughts on this. First, we are fortunate to be governed by a citizen electorate. Most of the officials proposing and deciding things are from the citizenry and are not professional politicians. That means that your Selectmen, Council, and School Board members were once part of the citizenry before got to their positions through a public process. Maybe the officials were stupid before they got on the Board and went through a reverse lobotomy to endow them with special intellect subsequent to their ascension to the microphone. But Rich, and the others, were once Joe Q. Citizen, the very same citizens that elected officials, including Rich, now say that we are too dumb to understand things.

Second, these citizens who are too dim to understand are the citizens who served or who will serve on the very same elected Boards that the officials sit on now. They are the very citizens who volunteer on Advisory Committees and recommend policy for our Comprehensive Plan, Zoning, Budget, or Library. They are the same citizens who coach your children, heal your sister, teach your nieces and nephews. They are the citizens who run the businesses you frequent and depend upon. They are the very citizens who breathe energy, life, and progress into our towns.

I do understand that once elected, the officials may undergo training specific to their position. They do have more complete knowledge of the nuances of contract negotiations or personnel issues, not commonly public information. They do live and work with the issues to a greater degree than the citizens do. I give them all that and more. But that doesn't make the officials smarter.

Citizens, I attend these meetings because most of you aren't able to spend the time attending them all. I am there on your behalf and I report to you all the information I can. I am sorry to have to say that time and again, the elected officials' mantra is that we are too stupid to understand. We understand all too well. The real point is, they wish we didn't.