BRATTLEBORO — When Steve West, host of “Live and Local” on WKVT, asked Kate O'Connor, a District 3 Democratic candidate for state representative, to identify the particular needs of her district, she answered that it “really is a community.” That the people of her district “see themselves as family.”
Although O'Connor dodges West's question, she does invite us to examine the idea of community.
Her evidence was that people volunteered their time to help others in Tropical Storm Irene and that some neighborhood people met to get the town to address speeding on their street.
Taking a closer and more realistic look at District 3, we don't see anything that distinguishes it from any other political district in Vermont. Throughout the entire state, citizens turned out in droves to aid stricken neighbors.
As I look back on all I have ever seen or otherwise learned about local response to small and large disasters in a community, it would be notable only if neighbors did not turn out to help one another. Pitching in is the norm.
For sure, some number of people sacrificed some amount of their time, energy, and even money responding to the victims of Tropical Storm Irene. In comparison to other places it is not clear that Brattleboro has achieved any greater degree of community than anywhere else.
An interesting and revealing debate for candidates would be on the meaning of community. This is by no means an easy question.
By definition, community is no more than a group of people linked by a common location or interest. Yet the good side of human nature - and, we hope, ultimately the dominant side - wants us to believe that community is also linked to a higher level of cooperation.
We hope that community is more than a mass of people in proximity or sharing some other common interest, that it is also a place where we know we all do better because we practice cooperation. It is a place where constituents know that in the end their survival hinges on cooperation.
Competitors win battles but always lose the war. Cooperators live in communities. Competitors live alone.
We certainly see flickers of community in District 3 - or all of Brattleboro, for that matter.
What O'Connor is just now beginning to realize is that, if she is to be representative of her district, she needs to support the stated concerns of her district.
She can go to election results and see how the district voted on nuclear energy, the use of our National Guard, and many other issues.
She might also note that Brattleboro voters gave U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders one of the biggest landslide victories of any federal candidate in American history while she was advising his opponent, conservative Richard Tarrant.
As of yet, O'Connor's campaign is mostly baby kissing (“I can't help being sappy”), flag waving (“I love my community”), and name dropping.
Perhaps the substance is yet to come.