Fourteen is a magic number at the Vermont Statehouse. With its 14 counties, Vermont was the 14th state to join the union. The number of years between Vermont’s declared independence and our 1791 statehood? Fourteen. And, during the legislative session, the lifeblood of communication at the Capitol is a small army of 14-year-olds.
Vermont’s Statehouse pages – thirty 8th graders from across the state – criss-cross the building delivering legislative drafts, reports, and messages. Missing school Tuesday through Friday for six weeks, these teenagers in green blazers memorize the names and faces of 30 senators and 150 representatives - all while keeping up with their homework.
My son had the good fortune to be a page this year, and it dramatically heightened his curiosity about democracy. Surrounded all day by the sound and motion of power, he came home teeming with questions - about the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats, and between fiscal issues and social issues.
He also acquired a wonderful insider’s view. One legislator is known for rewarding a well delivered message with a maple candy. Not to be outdone, another Senator hands out quotations - from Twain, Frost, or Marx – maybe Karl, maybe Groucho.
Doorkeepers supervise the pages and constantly reinforce rules – dress code is strict, decorum is critical. So one doorkeeper always adds a friendly, self-mocking tag line to each of his lectures: “Don’t run with scissors. Always eat your vegetables. Listen to your parents. And remember: we love you.”
Pages learn from their elders; but the benefits run both ways. Lt. Governor Phil Scott has noted that pages have “a calming effect” on legislative spats. After all, these impressionable youths look to legislators as role models.
Pages have supported the legislature for a long time. The wooden stools in the House are the very same stools pages have been sitting on for 150 years. And like generations before them, today’s pages endure stretches of tedium, intermingled with moments of mind-exploding change, power, deliberation, and laughter.
When I asked my son what had surprised him most about his experience, he said it was the realization that laws were made by people. Real people, he said - who fight, but who also work together, and laugh together.
Of course, he knew this before, but now it had become real: Government isn’t a “they,” it’s a “we.”
Pages are upholding a historic tradition. But they simultaneously embody a glowing beam of hope for democracy’s future.
Preparing for Town Meeting Day, we can be inspired by their fresh experience of democracy’s importance. Come March 4th , we probably won’t be sitting on 150-year-old stools – thank heavens! – but we will be participating in a 300-year-old tradition.
Like the pages, you may endure stretches of tedium - but probably, interspersed with moments of change, power, deliberation, and laughter.
Democracy is done by people. So a few reminders are in order: “Always eat your vegetables. Be kind to your neighbors. Listen before you talk. And remember - we love you.”
