Vox Populi but Whisper

At the risk of angering “The Most Interesting Man in the World” I would offer that I don’t always go to Norwich public meetings, but when I do, I wear elbow pads, a helmet and other protective gear. Surprisingly (for me) I keep my mouth shut and try to pay attention to the product and process of governance.

I go to a lot of meetings involving all manner of volunteers who offer their time and talents, and often toil and tears, as a way of helping make where all of us live a bit better today than it was yesterday.

I get to be a horn once a week around here in my local newspaper to the despair of Literacy Volunteers everywhere, honking about whatever in my state of self-absorption I think deserves your attention. That sometimes there’s not nearly as much thinking as there is shouting and pointing is all my doing and thank you for your patience and forgiveness.

The real work, from getting the ball fields ready for the Little League season through a line by line review of the city’s operating manual, our charter, to serving on any of a number of boards or committees, is what lights us up as a city and brightens every street and house.

Our neighbors, those who volunteer on our elected bodies, the City Council and the Board of Education, appreciate the truth of Harry Truman’s advice (applicable officeholders everywhere) “(i)f you want a friend, buy a dog.”

As the winter snow melts and budget deliberations for the city’s next fiscal year heat up before the first robin of spring has even arrived, we should all have important work to do in defining what we, the residents and consumers (if you will) of municipal goods and services, expect from our city and what we are willing, and able to pay. And speaking of money.

The City Council’s agenda for this Monday night at 6:30 came thisclose to including a public hearing redefining the paid fire department as a “general benefit and for general governmental purposes, the cost of which shall be borne by all of the inhabitants of the city of Norwich.”

What was driving this, said some, was fairness; others suggested it was a matter of more tax dollars. We may never know because while the history of a separate and additional tax levy for the City Consolidated District, CCD, goes back to the middle Sixties, we have worked hard for decades to never have a meaningful and fact-driven debate and decision about it. And we still haven’t.

We all agree ‘something must be done’ but the something? That’s the rub. People prefer a problem that’s familiar to a solution that is not. We can get so passionate we fail to remember in this city there should be no “them”-just “us.” An informed discussion on the issues requires we open our ears and minds much more than we open our mouths. Let’s talk to, not at, one another. And don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.
 -bill kenny