Democracy is neither self-actuating nor is it self-sustaining. Governance requires ongoing interest, awareness of the issues of the day, and a willingness to make the effort to show up and participate.
While events at the national level can often seem beyond the reach of most of us, participation in local government requires little more than your willingness to walk into town meeting or your local polling place. A few hundred people will make all the decisions for most Cape towns at upcoming town meetings. Most local elections will attract 10-15 percent of eligible voters. Low levels of participation in local elections is a form of an apathy largely unique to American that we all possess the ability to easily rectify.
APCC is providing guidance to voters in each town where environmentally significant articles appear on town meeting warrants. Even if you feel disconnected to local politics or have never been to a town meeting, we hope you will take the information we are providing and use it to cast your votes.
Regardless of your presence, decisions that affect the environment of the Cape will be made at town meeting. Why rely on others to do the right thing on water quality, land protection, environmental resource restoration and limiting the release of toxins to the environment when you possess the liberty to cast your own vote?
Town meetings and elections are a low-cost opportunity to both reconnect with your community and to act for a better environment. Make the effort and show up and vote.
