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CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES Monday, March 25, 2024* 1 <br /> V' <br /> a <br /> M R d <br /> i <br /> CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE <br /> MINUTES <br /> Monday, March 25, 2024 <br /> Popponesset Meeting Room—Mashpee Town Hall <br /> 16 Great Neck Road North <br /> Mashpee, MA 02649 <br /> 6:30 pm Convene Meeting in Open Session <br /> Present: John Miller, David Weeden, Rodney C. Collins, Darlene Furbush, Catherine Lewis, <br /> Gregory McKelvey, Don Myers, Carol A. Sherman, Mary Waygan <br /> Absent: Carol Sherman <br /> Committee Member David Weeden arrived after approval of the minutes. <br /> Pledge of Allegiance <br /> Moment of Silence <br /> Public Comment <br /> Wendy Williams, Simon's Narrow Road addressed the Committee: <br /> What is democracy? <br /> This may sound like a simple question. But it really isn't. The Greeks thousands of years ago <br /> wrestled endlessly with this question and this August body, meeting week after week, month, <br /> after month and, maybe even year after year is still wrestling with this question all these millennia <br /> later. <br /> Because what you are doing is hashing out Mashpee's own Magna Carta. So what is it? The <br /> concept of democracy changes with each generation. First it was only rich guys with a bunch of <br /> land and a bunch of peasants get to vote. That's how the House of Lords was invented. Then it <br /> was— hey wait—we're rich. We're guys. Why don't we get to vote? That's how the reprobating <br /> raucous house of commons was invented where successful English business men got to play a <br /> role. Then it was all about being able to read and being rich and male. <br /> Then women were allowed to vote. Then "everybody" was supposed to be allowed to vote no <br /> matter what their skin color. So what is it? And how do we protect it. Whatever it is. As <br /> Shakespeare said: Aye, there's the rub. Maybe it's easier to define what it is not. Democracy is <br /> not tsarism. Not rule by oligarchy. Not rule by priests or shamans. It's not rule by military junta, <br /> or by a politburo, or rule by Putin's henchmen who shoot you if you don't vote right. <br /> In fact, now that I think of it, democracy is not telling people how they have to behave or what <br /> they have to believe in order to belong to your precious inner circle. Democracy is not running a <br /> letter mill — writing letters for followers and sending them in to the local newspaper using <br /> someone else's email address.This particular little caper was uncovered when precisely the same <br />