Bin Laden's tour

I haven't posted much the past few days, because I've been spending my evenings at Town Meeting. My town has almost 60,000 inhabitants, so our Town Meeting members are elected. I was recently "caucused-in" to replace a member who resigned.

From time to time, I've thought of what I'd like Osama bin Laden and his henchmen to see, if by some chance I were to capture them. A New England town meeting is one of the sights they should certainly witness. Let them watch as citizens spend hours of their time discussing local zoning, budget and other issues. Boring? You bet. (Bin Laden's counsel might argue that having to sit through a town meeting violates the Eighth Amendment.) But valuable nonetheless.

I'd also like bin Laden and his gang go to a school committee meeting. And especially to witness a local election. I want them to see citizens volunteering their time to work all day that the polls. I want them to talk to candidates for offices that pay nothing, in salary or graft, who spend all day greeting voters, seeking the privilege to spend evenings at Town Meeting.

If, as I expect, I run for re-election next spring, I'll be out there in the cold (the election is early in May, but it's always cold on election day), missing a day from work and asking for votes so that I can spend more long nights in the high-school auditorium debating local issues with my fellow citizens.

If the people who hate us for who we are could and would take the time to watch the workings of American democracy, they might or might not like us better. But at least, I think, they would begin to realize what they are up against, and to understand that they can never win a struggle with the American people.

Now a struggle with our leaders--that might be a different story.