Public forums on the issues

Written by: Linda Maloney on Nov 27, 2006 9:34 PM EST

I persuaded my church (Northwest Deanery, Episcopal Diocese of Vermont) to sponsor a series of public forums on major issues (not the below-the-belt ones). Each had a knowledgeable speaker, and to each we invited all the candidates for public office. After the talk, each candidate could take up to five minutes to say how she or he would use the public office she or he was seeking to address the issue of the week. (Our speakers took on Darfur and humanitarian crises, the affluent West's connection to AIDS in Africa, economic justice, and environmental justice.)

The candidates (from six to eleven at each weekly forum) did an excellent job. Almost no one tried to give his or her stump speech, and some even came up with constructive ideas about practical things to do about the issues. (Examples: sponsoring more state scholarships for nursing instructors to help reduce the drain of medical personnel from the Two-thirds world to the U.S.; raising minimum wages for tipped workers to address economic disparities.) The forums were well covered in the county press, were well attended, and everyone agreed they raised the level of political discourse in the region. The forums were nonpartisan. Half a dozen statewide candidates attended, as well as most of the legislative candidates in Franklin County; attendees included Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives in numbers about proportionate to their presence in the legislature. DFA sponsored an event for Peter Welch, Democratic candidate for Congress, just before one of the forums and close by, which boosted attendance.

Is it accidental, or merely coincidental, that all the Democratic candidates for the legislature in Franklin County (including three newbies) were elected? I hope not.

Linda Maloney+

Enosburg Falls, VT 

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Location: VT