Do we even deserve to have a democracy anymore?

That's the question running through my mind as I write up Monday's Annual Town Meeting. Granted, I may be a little out of sorts. I have about five different part-time sources of earned income (freelancing, part-time contractor job, per diem, stipends) and they've all been asking me for extra time this week; I spent four of the last six days working in my gardens (since it finally stopped raining and snowing!). But I have to wonder whether a lot of my fellow Americans really get it.

Attendance at Winchendon's annual Town Meeting, 130 voters, was positively disgraceful. According to the Massachusetts Secretary of State, Winchendon has, as of February 1, 2021, 7,157 registered voters (1,215 Democrats, 1,041 Republicans, 4,764 unenrolled-in-any-party [I'm one of those]). That means that 1.8 percent of Winchendon's voters attended Town Meeting. Sure, COVID and social distancing and all that...but there were lots and lots of empty chairs, plus overflow space if need be.

And it was a beautiful evening. Had some kind of madness overtaken the town and some hundreds of voters showed up, we could all have surged outside and sat in one of fields. After all--every household was mailed a copy of the Warrant.

Turnout for Town Meeting has never been very high in Winchendon, unless there was a hot-button topic (Prop 2-1/2 overrides and zoning articles are often effective draws, especially if the override is for the schools). Maybe that's why, before 2019 (when Annual Town Meeting had 121 attendees scattered around the echoing Murdock auditorium like lonely singles at a midnight matinee), the Town Report didn't even record what the attendance was.

But the Winchendon Courier did, at least sometimes. In 2018, Annual Town Meeting had 387 voters; in 2016, 155; in 2015, "over 150".

Last fall, with Town Meeting convening four months late, in the height of the pandemic, 174 people attended.

Why won't voters attend Town Meeting? No child care? (That can be addressed.) Have to work that night? (I've had that problem, but we can't have 7,027 second-shift workers in Winchendon.) Too tired? (Aren't we all.) Don't feel like your vote matters? (I can refer you to numerous articles that passed or failed by just a few votes.)

There's one possible explanation that I don't believe for a second. I don't believe that people just don't care.

It seems that people have completely lost faith in the power of public participation. Groups doing surveys and asking residents for their feedback keep hearing that residents have seen too many plans and promises and proposals that never went anywhere (or that's their impression). The system is rigged, people think; small factions working behind the scenes get what they want no matter how the vote goes. It's all a done deal.

We've all seen the news about the persistent paranoid suspicion that the 2020 Presidential Election was fraudulent. In some places there are still audits and recounts going on, six months after the polls closed and four months after the results were certified. But how often can you check the same data and get the same result and keep on thinking it's bogus? If you're convinced that 2 + 2 must equal 5, how many calculators will you throw away and sums will you do before you have to admit that the answer is 4? One heck of a lot, apparently. You know what they say about doing exactly the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

At the same time--this isn't what people do when they just don't care.

How does a small town, governed by the purest form of democracy in the modern world, make its citizens feel like they're heard and they matter? How much outreach to the public can our all-volunteer boards and committees do, when they have jobs and lives along with the duties of their positions for the town?

In Unitarian Universalism, there is a position known as a Good Officer whose job is to mediate among people who have conflicts they can't resolve. Maybe towns need a Good Officer, too--or a team of them, since it can be stressful work. When citizens are upset with Town Hall, and don't trust that they're being told the truth, and withdraw from civic participation, maybe we need someone they can go to who can help clear up the disagreements and repair the broken trust.

Americans suffer from a destructive and toxic delusion: the delusion that every person is an isolated individual, totally responsible for themselves. In reality, not one single human being alive does not owe at least 90 percent of who they are and what they achieve to other people. Our greatest strengths are an ability to cooperate for the common good and form social networks with other people. Watch the movie Cast Away if you think pure self-sufficiency should be your highest goal.

There are lots more fun things to do than attend a business meeting. But Town Meetings, and voting, are important. We can do a lot better than 1.8 percent. After all, it's your taxes, your property values, the future of your community that are being decided! It's your right to have a say in those decisions. Don't throw that away.

Inanna Arthen