I recommend attending your local city council meetings. For me there are two benefits. I learn more about the policies that are going to directly impact my life, and I get to see how my elected leaders engage each other as they make tough decisions. (I’m impressed with the civility of Eugene Oregon’s city council.)
But I also like it as a writer because of the people who sign up to give public testimony in these meetings. At the Feb. 10, 2025 city council meeting 14 people offered opinions on a variety of topics. Some came to support an extra fee the city is considering that will make coming budget cuts less awful. Some were vehemently against that fee: “I’m extremely sad, disgusted and embarrassed for your behavior,” one person said. I found that interesting because I thought the council’s behavior was kind of stellar despite the disagreements among them. Hearing real people on real issues helps me diversify viewpoints in my fictional work, the same way artists like drawing figures from real life.
But there is also the pleasure of the just flat unexpected that sometimes shows up. One gentlemen spoke for two minutes and he spoke quickly so I may have missed some context. But, best as I can determine, he was there to restore the reputations of a couple of people (presumably long dead) who had joined a local Ku Klux Klan group in the 1920s under a misunderstanding about the purpose of the group. The speaker wanted it known that these people were not racist just, I don’t know, uninformed?
The writer in me, the citizen in me, the secret voyeur in me, we all benefit when I show up.
Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now 