Prelude of things to come

Just got back from the Precinct Forum for discussing the warrant articles. If this was an 18-person microcosm of Town Meeting, then that does not bode well.

On the one hand, I admire that this handful of people turned out for the meeting. On the other hand, the level of preparedness was alarming. Instead of having questions about the articles clarified, some people were clearly being introduced to the articles for the very first time. Worse though was the amount of time taken up by non-germane discussion. I don't mean the small talk and chit-chat -- I mean discussion about the topics of the articles, but not the terms of the articles. "Why don't they just ..." "I think we should ..." "Instead, why can't we ..." OK folks, all very interesting, but that's not what this is about.

It was a tiny but vivid lesson in why TM takes sooo much time.