Have you ever met Peter?

In a country based on a system where the majority rules, what is too often forgotten is the fact the the rules imposed by the majority do in fact include one or two rights still retained by the minority.  A minority which often times obtains that designation by a very slim margin.

History is replete with examples of majority positions that change, are by today's present morality nearly universally abhorred, and by the standards of today's collective consciousness are intolerable. 

Just a thought.  

Moving on ...

Town meeting ... the concept ... the reality.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you understand I am a pretty big fan of Town Meeting.  I like the fact that Fairhaven has the largest representative town meeting in the Commonwealth.  I believe in the concept that legislative powers should be separated from the executive branch.  

I believe now however, that what is can only from this point on be defended by those who constitute the body's membership.  You cannot defend a number simply on tradition. You cannot defend a system that enables a significant portion of members to be elected not by the ballot, but a process that is geared to simply fill slots.

Neither can you continue to stand up and cheer about a system that sees, on a consistent basis a third of its members who actually show up in the morning to leave in the afternoon.  This year's show was more obvious than past years due to the fact the numbers at the gate for post time where unbelievably small to begin with.

Again, I like what we have. In concept anyway. 

When you sit and think about it though what is the point of the constant need to make arrangement for a potential 400 plus people, incur the costs and burden of distributing 400 plus warrants, reports, hand outs and a few other things, when exceeding 50% turnout is considered stellar.

Picking up the mantra for change, you have to seriously consider what changes are needed here. 

Speaking of change ...

I have been changing back and forth from a few recordings of meetings, trying to find some positive inspiration. You just about have to flip through the channels so to speak to make it to the end. Anyway, more change is coming on multiple fronts.

I observed and listened to multiple sound bites which I suppose could fall into the inspirational  category. Many of the same would also have to fall into the cheap shot category too. Since the creative juices aren't flowing enough to raise the tide to the level of biting wit, I will leave it at that. 

Had a semi-serious discussion the other day about the Peter Principle. If you know what that is, hats off. If you don't,well there is a pretty decent "digest" version of it on Wikipedia. 

Most relevant part of the version, at least in my opinion:

The Peter Principle is a special case of a ubiquitous observation: Anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails. This is "The Generalized Peter Principle." There is much temptation to use what has worked before, even when it may exceed its effective scope. Wikipedia. 

Whether something has actually worked is a matter of opinion, of course; along with whether something is actually being used within its proper scope. But making positive assumptions on both, there is no escaping the further assumption the principal is in fact playing itself out. Indeed, it seems to be flourishing on many fronts.

And I will pretty much leave it there. 

Be safe. Until the next time ... whenever that may be.