Nathan: Elected public office holder.

[Big Wiggly Style]

We should form an Atlas Forum party, kinda like Americans Elect, in which we run two members for President/Vice President every four years.

[Cathcon]

We should form an Atlas Forum party, kinda like Americans Elect, in which we run two members for President/Vice President every four years.

That costs money.

[Big Wiggly Style]

We should form an Atlas Forum party, kinda like Americans Elect, in which we run two members for President/Vice President every four years.

That costs money.

Well what do people without money do when they need things?

They steal.

Atlas Forum Burglary Party

That's our party name.

And we will run Angus/Torie in 2012.

[State Comptroller Atkins]

Congrats Nathan!

[Cathcon]

Angus/Torie? Single most respectable ticket in all of history.

[So the Heroes Fall]

I'm told I'm the youngest person to hold public office at any level in Massachusetts in some time, which is also exciting.

Oakvale, I'll see what I can do. I'm at the other end of the Commonwealth from the bogs, but we've got a lot of apple orchards and dairy farms if that helps, and I'm sure I can make a trip to the East if it's for Atlas Forum.

How old are you?  You could be a congressman one day.  Somebody from this forum needs to become a member of Congress in the future.

The first Congressional election I'll be eligible in will be 2018.

You're only 19? I had no clue you were that young. Wow that means you weren't even able to vote for Obama in 2008...

[asexual trans victimologist]

I'm told I'm the youngest person to hold public office at any level in Massachusetts in some time, which is also exciting.

Oakvale, I'll see what I can do. I'm at the other end of the Commonwealth from the bogs, but we've got a lot of apple orchards and dairy farms if that helps, and I'm sure I can make a trip to the East if it's for Atlas Forum.

How old are you?  You could be a congressman one day.  Somebody from this forum needs to become a member of Congress in the future.

The first Congressional election I'll be eligible in will be 2018.

You're only 19? I had no clue you were that young. Wow that means you weren't even able to vote for Obama in 2008...

It's because I started college when I was 15.

Yeah, I was a little cross since that was the first election I was really invested in (though I supported Kerry in 2004 because he was from New England and was not Bush, whom I already disliked).

[So the Heroes Fall]

Like you actually graduated or you just took some transferable college courses in high school?

[asexual trans victimologist]

I dropped out and took a GED and started college. I'm honestly not even sure why they let me.

[So the Heroes Fall]

WTF, that's possible? If it's that's like the biggest unexploited loophole ever...

[Senator Napoleon]

Congratulations Nathan this is amazing!!!!

[asexual trans victimologist]

WTF, that's possible? If it's that's like the biggest unexploited loophole ever...

The problem, of course, is then you have to do college-level work, which is why my GPA went from 4.0 in 2007-8 to 2.9 in 2008-9 (though it's crawled back up to 3.4 since).

Thank you, Napoleon. I'll be sure to keep everyone informed of what goes on with this.

[Frodo]

Wow -awesome news. 

I fully expect to see you in the Massachusetts legislature eventually -maybe even Congress by the time you reach your early 40s if not earlier. 

[Reginald]

Very cool. Congratulations, Nathan!

[Χahar]

WTF, that's possible? If it's that's like the biggest unexploited loophole ever...

It's certainly possible in California, although the test isn't the GED but a different test.

[Big Wiggly Style]

Awww I wanna start college now I hate high school

[TJ in Wisco]

Congratulations Nathan! I expect all of the Amherst, MA area's social ills to be cured by this time next year

[Senator Kalwejt]

Congratulations Nathan this is amazing!!!!

[Torie]

Congrats Nathan. Every precinct has its own municipal legislator/councilperson?  How many of them are there in your town?  Is this true of every town in Mass, or just some?  If all, Boston must have a BIG city council.

[muon2]

Congrats Nathan. Every precinct has its own municipal legislator/councilperson?  How many of them are there in your town?  Is this true of every town in Mass, or just some?  If all, Boston must have a BIG city council.

Amherst has a representative town meeting form of government, essentially replacing the town meeting with a smaller body. Boston is a city and does not have a town meeting.

In any case congrats Nathan. Local government is a great way to learn retail politics and understand how a government functions. It's also a good way get to know your area's political players and decide if upward steps make sense.

[asexual trans victimologist]

Specifically, Amherst has ten precincts and twenty-four town meeting members per precinct.

Thank you very much, muon. I already know the daughter of the Town Moderator quite well (they're a branch of the Gregg family, of Judd fame, actually) and I hope to get to know more people involved in running the area.

[asexual trans victimologist]

And the adventure continues with my first Precinct Meeting (for 1 and 3; I'm in 3), where I meet such luminaries as Precinct 1's Louis and Hilda Greenbaum (both professors of history at my university, I think maybe former in Louis's case, who have been on Town Meeting almost every year for decades) and Precinct 3's Nancy Gregg (who is related to both the Town Moderator and one of my first friends when I arrived in the area--not the same person). We discussed, almost to exclusion, Article 25 of the 2012 Amherst Town Warrant, which would rezone North Amherst Village Center in such a way as to allow one Jones family to extensively develop a bunch of land that they own for purposes of tract housing and also make it easier for existing buildings, some of which date back to the 1730s, to be demolished for the same purpose. I, like everybody else there, oppose this, and gave my first public speech (at least, my first in this sort of context) explaining why I do even though I'm a university student and the tract housing is supposed to be there to be affordable for university students: I'm opposed to my university's practice of simply outsourcing its self-manufactured housing crisis to the town that surrounds it, which only serves to create a new housing crisis in the town that leads to bad remedies like this one. I spoke for about four or five minutes and it seemed pretty well-received, though they may have been going easy on me because I'm new.

Tomorrow is the first actual sitting of the Amherst Town Meeting. I've been asked to help present our case to the Town Moderator. Most of the Town of Amherst actually opposes this particular development but most wants 'development' generically constructed so it's a matter of whether or not we're able to convince at least a third of our colleagues from other precincts to join us in sending a message that we will hold out for something better that will not turn North Amherst into essentially suburbia of the city writ small that is the University of Massachusetts.

[Progressive Realist]

Good luck on the presentation, Nathan!

[asexual trans victimologist]

Thank you, Allen.

Fun fact: I have three entirely unrelated things to 'present' in varying contexts over the next two days. Got to love finals.

[So the Heroes Fall]

I get the impression this job would actually be pretty boring, it's hard to think of any hot button issues that would come up in Amherst. Mostly just dealing with resident complaints about road maintenance in their areas I bet.

But hey that first issue sounds worth fighting for, even if quite minor in the scheme of things.