The Boone Town Council member says that talking to people in real life is a simple, important way to restore faith in government and democracy.
By Dalton George
Beacon Media
“It’s not very often that the second in command of the town you live in is willing to come out and talk to the people, answer questions, and let people get to know him.”
That was a quote someone gave a newspaper reporter after a recent informal town hall I held. A few people had said something like that to me as I sat with a crowd in Lily’s Snack Bar, a Boone staple among watering holes. I had just wrapped up the second of my Boone Town Hall series, and folks were responding well as I talked with them afterward.
The idea for these came to me back in the heart of a particularly cold Boone winter after the last presidential election. I spent a lot of time indoors, reading, reflecting, and being generally dismayed with the direction the country was headed and where the future of our democracy was going.
Regardless of party, most people hate politics, they distrust the system, and they feel left behind, unheard, and sidelined. I understood how they felt. So how could I reconcile this with being an elected official? I decided on an “ambitious” idea — aiming to talk to people.
These town halls have very little format, lots of me answering questions, sharing frustrations, and inviting people to help me solve the problems. It’s risky, no doubt, for an elected official to deviate from the script, but to meet this moment it’s also necessary. Opening yourself to a dialogue, answering any question asked can be a challenge, but importantly it also humanizes our decision-makers.
And as we continue to see our politics go in a direction far away from the way we talk to each other in our own communities, this can be an antidote for some on the fence who view the entire realm of public service skeptically.
To cut through the noise, I challenge local elected officials to get out there, hear people out, show that we’re not a piece of the broader dysfunction in Washington or Raleigh but instead a neighbor, someone stuck in traffic with them, someone equally impacted by the issues of our towns and counties.
We don’t need public hearings and listening sessions in our chambers but instead at our local bars, churches, businesses and parks.
One person told me, “I saw this advertised! It wasn’t hard for me and my partner to come out given the fact we already eat here regularly. We learned a lot about the town and we’re glad we did.”
Somewhere along the way, the little drug store counters disappeared, the old timer in the rocking chair at the local feed store went home, and local politics was associated with the mess in Raleigh and Washington. We stopped talking to our neighbors about what we cared about locally, and we all lost because of it. And while an Instagram Live, a Facebook comment thread, and snappy TikTok are technically interacting with people, it should all be superlative to honest, authentic, face-to-face conversations.
And so, I’ve just wrapped up my sixth Town Hall. People are still coming, and I’m staying honest. Come to Boone, you may just stumble into a pop-up Town Hall, even if you’re just trying to grab a bite to eat from a local dive.
When I hang my hat up from public service the last thing I want anyone saying is, “Dalton was never willing to talk or listen.”
Dalton George, 25, currently serves as the Mayor Pro-Tem of the Town of Boone and is one of the youngest officeholders in North Carolina. Follow him on Instagram, @DaltonforBoone.
