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It's town meeting day here in Vermont. \nIn most of New England, town citizens become legislators for one day a year. They get together in school gyms and town halls and vote in person, and in public. This centuries long practice of towns doing the slow and hard work of disagreeing and arguing and compromising on how to govern themselves\u2014this has a profound impact on a place, and what it means to be from a place.\nSometimes it\u2019s contentious. Sometimes it\u2019s boring. But it\u2019s always the most interesting and authentic and civilized social event of the year. Always.