This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

Every year in the spring, small towns throughout New England host their annual town meeting.

Town meetings take place in high school gyms or town halls and anyone can come.

In fact in Vermont, Town Meeting Day is a public holiday.

Everyone gets the day off work to make sure they have the chance to participate.

It's a moment when everyone who lives there can come together and talk out the issues facing the town

and decide how they want to spend their money.

My parents used to drag me to town meeting.

I mean, it's a remarkable institution.

Eric Aileman is a radio producer who lives in Vermont.

She's been going to town meetings since she was a kid.

And so I would go when I and everybody looks terrible because it's at the time of year

when everybody's been inside like they're smeared with salt and stuff and they look awful and but you know people in a town become

legislators for a day.

Erica is loath to romanticize life in Vermont, but she gets pretty romantic about town meeting.

You know, I am moved every time.

Every year I am moved by town meeting because people, every single person in that room has something to bring that is unique

to them. And they may not, we may not need it that year, right? But it could be that we do.

And they stand up and they say, they say their peace and we say oh my

God didn't know that right so everyone is deeply equal in that room it's not

always easy there are disagreements but Erica says people learn to disagree civilly because in a small town you have to rely on one another.

A lot of these small towns depend on volunteers to function and town meeting is the place where those roles get decided.

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