These past few years, I often find myself in a town hall parking lot. It’s usually after a town board meeting ends, all the sound and fury subsides, and the once-crowed lot has emptied. I sit alone in my car, thinking about where our reform cause is, and where it’s headed.
But last night in West Seneca, sitting under a canopy of brilliant Western New York stars, I realized that something special had happened. In finally scheduling a downsizing referendum, the town board had, unwittingly and against its will, affirmed the American experiment. (here are The Buffalo News, WGRZ News, and WIVB accounts)
Facing public resolve, eloquently expressed in petition signatures, the public servants fought. And fought. But the people would not relent. And finally, last night, six months after I first broached the idea of change with them; three months after their first of several votes denying the people’s rights; two months after the petition was submitted; one month after they hired lawyers; three weeks after the court ruled that people’s will outweighs politicians’ desires; and three days after a higher court warned them, the West Seneca town board looked inward and saw the outward arc of democracy, ever bending toward the people. And they gave back what the people had, in truth, never lost, but merely misplaced: their rights.
My role in this story was small. I just took a couple of law books, rubbed them together and lit a small spark. That spark ran like a current through the hundreds of West Seneca residents who carried the petition, and then onto the thousands of citizens who signed it. And as a result of their mighty efforts, beginning in West Seneca and carrying onto every town and village in Erie County, people, not politicians, will decide the size and shape of their government.
Ours is a great community. Which should and can be even greater. Toward that end, we turn our energy and spirit now to the task of informing citizens of the benefits of reducing government in this age of smaller population, decreased capital, and dashed dreams. Only by reforming our system can we begin to re-imagine ourselves in new dreams, and then see them come true for all Western New Yorkers.
In the coming weeks, I hope you’ll stand with us in West Seneca. And help us pass the first of many tests to come.
