My friend Bonnie wants to know what is wrong with our town. Well, I have an opinion about that. Here it is.

The Pieces

First, there are a bunch of us liberals that live in one area of town, up North here. We are mostly white, Judeo-Christians, or has-beens like me who jumped ship and became a Unitarian. We have a certain amount of money and we live in the neighborhood we live in because, whether we admit it or not, we prefer our houses to NOT be rundown or NOT be nextdoor to the former Mr. Ps shooting gallery and bar.

Second, there are a bunch of conservatives who live in the SAME area of town. In fact, there are MORE of them than there are of us. They live here because they like the school systems, they like their privacy, they like white people like themselves and they will ADMIT that they NEVER wanted to go inside Mr. Ps shooting gallery and bar, not even out of curiosity.

Third, (but not because it’s LESS mind you!) there are the social liberals who ALSO voted for Obama who live at the other (south) end of town. They may or may not work at the former Mr Ps shooting gallery and bar, and they live in whatever type of abode a service wage can afford them (after all, this is Connecticut and us whiteys like to be served).

Which isn’t much. And it IS rundown, because they have NO time to fix it up because they work 70 hours a week and have three kids to take care of. They are exhausted and even if they rent, they can’t be bothered to call the landlord, unless it’s dire. They TOO would like to have time to plan their youngest birthday party, and also have to fill out all those friggin’ kindergarten registration forms that require a PhD that NOBODY has.

The REALLY South End

Fourth, there’s Lordship, which is basically Texas. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE, including them) secretly wants them to secede and take the airport with them. Only problem is they are attached to our beach rights, which is the only reason any of us live in Stratford.

The REALLY North End

Fifth, Oronoque. OK, everyone has SOMEONE they know and love who lives a-way up there on Assisted Living Island, so it’s hard to say anything bad, right? Respect thine elders, right?

The best solution would be to distract them all with a really great reality television program featured there, because as we know, every vote in town is skewed by the Black Hole District–where voters have all the time to vote and complain, but no time to actually be involved in the town and do anything of use.

Sixth, the big Fat Middle.  These include all of the following:

1. There’s the guys on the couch. The armchair conservative quarterbacks who slam beers and bitch about everything but only vote when one or two issues chap their hides. Like gun control and pencil skirts.

2. High-horse liberals who are busy homeschooling their kids and feel the lousy government doesn’t include them. So they “drop out.”

3. And we all know the people who say “Politicians are all corrupt. I just don’t vote.”

You want to know what’s wrong with our town? We are the perfect image of America. We are plagued with apathy. We reject and disconnect from anyone of another race, culture, or socioeconomic class– even if their values and ideas are the same as ours. We are frozen, because we believe we are right.

We are Narcissus, staring at our lovely selves in the pool that is about to drown us.

We are living on our 1/4 to 3/4 acre islands of anger, frustration and oblivion, texting and messaging only the people who agree with us. And when we disagree, we say:

“People should never talk about politics or religion.”

We talk and we don’t act.  When we act, we are filling out forms for soccer, pouring asphalt in potholes, and driving our cars in traffic.

That’s what’s wrong.

And I know… this is a lot of talking and not acting. I know. But Bonnie asked.

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If anyone is wondering what I was doing on election day, have a look at this photo…

This is LONG BEACH, an image taken from the air a few years ago, of one of the beaches owned by my town, Stratford, CT. On election day–all but about two hours, anyway–I spent the day at Wilcoxson School, my local polling place, “poll standing.”

I’ve always been a bit mouthy about my environmental opinions, but never gotten this involved in an issue before. But I could see clearly the Town of Stratford needed to let this beautiful piece of coastal land be released to the Trust, for the benefit of the town, and for our future generations. I was passionate about it–even wrote a long letter to the Mayor saying so… mostly because a young man came to my door and asked if I would.

And I made a donation. It was my town, after all, and I cared about it. And then when I got called and asked to donate time, I wasn’t sure I could, but eventually I saw that Tuesday, election day, was wide open for me. I couldn’t say no.

Poll standing– standing at the poll place and handing out information to those walking in to vote– was a revelation for me, but not totally unfamiliar. After all, when I used to vote in Kansas City, at the little church on Westport Road, I relied on the poll standers to give me information on issues I hadn’t been brilliant enoough to bone up on beforehand. They never let me down. This time it was my turn to encourage voters to “turn the ballot over the state and local issues” as I handed them my flyer on Vote YES!

A curious thing happened that made me realize how quickly the poll standing became important to me. On election day, I took about two hours off from the polls. I was at home, eating lunch and warming up. But most of all, I was fretting. I was gaining a whole new vantage point on election day as I sat watching a rerun of “House” and worried.

Look at that photo again, the lovely coastline. If I stay at home, I thought to myself, for even another 10 minutes, I might miss that one or two voters that make the difference. I might miss the chance to shift the vote and save the shoreline.

My shoreline.

I went back and stayed there, following the voters as much as I could, up to the 75 foot line. I was just one person at Wilcoxson, so I didn’t save Long Beach. I was a minuscule part of a big Stratford Citizen movement, with the Trust for Public Land.

But no matter how small my part was to the YES vote, it was enormous to me. YES to Long Beach changed how I saw my part of the political machine–local and powerful, a voice for change, when people really are listening.

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