
Susan Clark
CommentatorSusan Clark is a facilitator, educator, and the co-author of "Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home." She is also Town Moderator of Middlesex, Vermont.
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Like our physical bodies, our body politic needs regular exercise to stay healthy. So put on your workout gear for Town Meeting. More than 60 percent of…
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Ninety school districts - about a quarter of Vermont’s communities - have proposed meeting Act 46’s goals through collaboration rather than formal…
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A neighbor told me recently that his fifth-grade son was interested in Town Meeting. “He wants to learn more about – what’s that ‘order’ thing?” “Robert’s…
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One recent, wet morning, I shuffled into the meeting room. The coat rack held a cross-section of Vermont outerwear—fancier dress coats, parkas smeared…
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In the wake of one of the most divisive elections in history, a lot of us have a wicked post-election hangover caused by the polarization bender we’ve…
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I’m old enough to remember America’s Bicentennial in 1976 – but young enough to have been an impressionable pre-adolescent at the time. I was swept up in…
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I love the Town Meeting Civil Invocation, because it speaks of civility.In this election year, there’s been an awful lot of yelling about building walls…
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Act 46 asks questions about education quality, equity and cost. But unless the legislature repairs its flaws, its biggest impact may be on…
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A well-known optical illusion shows two silhouetted faces in profile looking at each other. At first, most viewers just see the faces, then comes the…
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In considering the school consolidation issue, we would do well to recall Paul Searls’ 2006 book “Two Vermonts.” While his study was about Vermont in the…