The Price of Being Right

 I made a mistake

It is not the first (by a stretch), and it won’t be the last.

It is not the worst, most uninformed, or most controversial mistake I have ever made.  But the consequences feel disproportionate to the decision I made at about 5:00 PM on Tuesday, May 14.

I decided not to go to Town Meeting. 

     For one of the few times in decades I opted to stay home instead of carrying out a civic duty that, as a social studies teacher, should have known better than to ignore.  There were reasons that fed into the decision, but there is no blame.  It is my responsibility alone.

     Why is this such a big deal?  Because a school budget that I knew little about (again, shame on me) was defeated by 5 votes. Added to this, due to an unfortunate bit of wrong information, without a passed school budget, the school system will shut down on July 1.

     I am in the last couple years of a long, happy, and, I hope, successful teaching career at Uxbridge High.  I have been proud and grateful to teach in my hometown while raising a family that went through the same school system.  But, in a turn of events that I could not have foreseen even a week ago, I received my first ever “pink slip”.  Surreal doesn’t begin to explain the feeling.

     This budget has brought on heated debate and divisive feelings.  There have been changes to the school committee.  Town meetings and elections are exactly the instruments our forefathers imagined leading to the best form of democracy at the local level, and this situation is no different.  It’s how it is supposed to happen.  But, when voters voted without the knowledge of a school district shutdown as a consequence, this type of mistake needs to be remedied in a special way.  Thus was called a special town meeting.

     

     This scenario reminded me of the wisdom of Franklin D. Roosevelt at one of the most dangerous times in history. During World War II, President Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress had taken a mostly hands-off approach to helping the French and British.  That was until the Nazis showed that world domination may not be such a pipe dream after all.  The Lend-Lease Act was proposed to help our Allies in dire need.  FDR used the analogy that when your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t haggle over the price of a hose.  You just give it to him to put out the fire.  

     This is the situation that we find ourselves in.  How we got here does not matter at this juncture.  All that matters is avoiding a historically embarrassing event in not just Uxbridge history, but the state of Massachusetts.  The list of negative consequences to all of us is too numerous, but it is not imagined.  Showing up to the special town meeting on June 18 is, strangely, one of the most important votes you and I can make for our town.

      I am taking accountability for my mistake.  The only two things I feel that I can do is share this with you, and show up to vote.  I am imploring you, as an Uxbridge voter, to join me.

      Dr. Phil used to ask people, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?”  Hopefully a compromised budget will be proposed.  Hopefully it will do justice to our children who attend these schools.  But, despite what the budget is, it needs to pass by two-thirds.  There may be legitimate issues with whatever budget is proposed.  But are we going to sacrifice our happiness to “win” an argument?  What is the price of being “right”?

Please.

Show up.

Pass the budget.

Live to debate the next debate.

Otherwise, we will be the town that yelled at each other while our house burned down behind us. 

And it would all have been preventable.