BRATTLEBORO — On some level, I'm attracted to the notion of the Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting ad hoc Futures Committee - maybe because I see less and less of my future.
But the minutes of this new committee are troubling.
The truth is, most people's attention span can hardly make it to the next day, much less the next week or following year.
Some of the comments like “apparent inertia of our system,” “to get at why the system does not work,” “current broken system,” or “disconnect between government and people” are a bit overstated. The system isn't really broken or suffering from inertia, and all the future planning you can muster is not going to connect government and people any more than it does now.
Also, the passed “motion to end all our meetings with a brief evaluation of the meeting by each member“ is redundancy. Why in anybody's god's name would you do that?
Another member sees the need to differentiate “from the Planning Department by taking a much longer term and broader approach.”
Rubbish. You go too broad and far out, and all you'll do is collapse in on yourself and fall on your ass.
Realistically, the single main item of future concern is expenditure, which is significantly tied to allocations for how high we go for police and fire services (which of course, is vital to our future - if done right). And how the hell does this wee-bits-of-a-micro-tax-based population pay for it - through our noses?
But worst of all is the obviousness that once again old people are planning for the future. That's not bad because they are old, as I am, but because there is an obvious lack of young people's involvement, yet again.
If you really want to help take care of the future, then step aside and let the young folks do their own damn planning.
Trouble is, we don't trust them and won't give them a chance.