Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The town hall meeting is ingrained in the history of New England from its earliest colonial days. While in decline, the town hall meeting is still the form of government in use today in a number of small towns in New England. History of Town Meeting: Origins of Small Town Government and Direct Democracy
The first recorded gathering of voters in America took place in Dorchester, MA in 1633. According to the Dorchester Athenaeum online, a Town Meeting Square tablet commemorates the approximate location of the meeting house, which was also used as a school. The gist of this historic first was that the townsmen, by vote, agreed to meet at regular intervals to see to the "good and well ordering of the affayres of the Plantation." Soon after, the greater Boston area had begun adopting the process.
Every school child in America is taught about the town hall meetings of New England as being the cradle of the development of democratic principles of government in America. It is our shared history and defines who we are as Americans. It is to be revered, honored and respected.
One of my favorite artists/illustrators is Norman Rockwell. His Four Freedoms paintings were inspired by a speech given before the United States Congress on January 6, 1941 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In that famous and stirring speech, Roosevelt enumerated four basic freedoms to which every person was entitled. The first was freedom of speech.
For inspiration for Freedom of Speech, Rockwell recalled a recent town hall meeting in Arlington, Vermont where he lived at that time. He remembered how his neighbor, Arlington resident Jim Edgerton, had stood up during the meeting and aired an unpopular opinion. Instead of objecting to his remarks, his fellow citizens honored Edgerton's right to speak his piece.
Rockwell decided that their respect for Edgerton's unpopular viewpoint perfectly illustrated Roosevelt's idea of Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Speech by Norman Rockwell inside The Saturday Evening Post 2/20/1943
The central figure stands above the rest. He is dressed in working clothes that have a slightly rough quality. He has a determined look on his face. In his pocket is a rolled up program for the meeting.
All eyes are on the speaker.
Seated around him are his neighbors. All are holding the same program. The men whose clothes we can see are all dressed in suits. We assume they are businessmen.
Mild disagreement crosses the face of the man on his right. He is smiling upside down. His program is clenched in his hand.
Yet no one interrupts the speaker.
Rockwell aptly captures the essential character of free speech with this painting.
No protestors in colorful tee-shirts waving crude signs and rudely shouting down any speaker in an effort to threaten and intimidate others to deny them their First Amendment right of free speech in a civil forum.
America's long tradition of town hall meetings is now under attack from GOP agitators at recent town hall meetings. They are agitators sponsored by corporate lobbyists and right-wing political action committees, and their hooliganism is encouraged by both the right-wing media and the Republican Party. It is un-American and shameful behavior in this country. The parties responsible for this should be held accountable by Americans who still revere, honor and respect our time-honored democratic traditions.
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