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Sunday, April 9, 2017

The People's Government

For the last two years, during the County Board's organizational meeting in January, Kay Stuligross has moved that the time of the full County Board meeting be changed from 10:00 AM on the first Wednesday of each month, to later in the afternoon or evening on that same day. The goal was to increase the number of citizens who could attend the meetings, since they would be after most people were out of work, and not in the middle of the morning on a workday.

Objections to this change never seemed to make sense to me; they seemed incomplete and ineffectual. “Noone will come even if we change the time,” was a leading contender. It was almost as if there were another reason that no one wanted to discuss.

I believe that the reason that no one wanted to discuss was, and is, this: with daytime meetings, only people with flexible schedules can run for Representative. Very few people who work in schools, the professions or in most nine-to-five jobs have schedules flexible enough, whereas small businessmen, farmers and retired people do. The former tend to be Democrats, at least in this county, and the latter Republicans. The cards are stacked against us, on purpose.

I'd like to test the viability of this theory by winning the majority this time and changing the time of the meetings. More people can come to the meetings and have their voices heard, and a wider variety of citizens will be able to run for office. Wouldn't that be interesting? Are you listening, Thomas Jefferson?

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