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Massachusettts News 
By Curt Lovelace 

November 1--Massachusetts News recently interviewed David Stephens at his home in Concord. 

MassNews: Why is there a Concord Forum? 

Stephens: Because we desperately need one. The social and political environment in which we find ourselves is not conducive to an evenhanded treatment of a variety and diversity of perspectives. People feel that they need a freedom from being intimidated. There is a high selectivity and political correctness that tells you what you can and cannot say. 

The Concord Forum provides a community-based forum for the free and open discussion, analysis and debate and exploration of those issues of concern to Concordians. 

It has been my experience in Concord that any expression of anything but the status quo position has been met with serious put-downs. The restraint of discussions at town caucuses is nothing but a means of perpetuating the establishment. 

MassNews: What kinds of put-downs and restraints are you talking about? 

Stephens: I remember when one individual was going to run for office and had a sharp difference of opinion with the town officials on the way things are done on the committee she was running for. Selectmen went out of their way to pick a man to run against her whom they felt they could manipulate, so that they could limit her from running. There were two other candidates and the caucus could only allow two, so they forced her to go out and get signatures. The caucus wouldn’t support her. She went out and she won. 

We gave that individual an opportunity to present her case at the Concord Forum. Now that was not because we supported that individual. We just thought it was unfair for capable people with public service in mind to be treated in that fashion. So it has been our policy – whether I agree with them politically or not is beside the point – when they come to the Concord Forum, they’re to be treated as guests in my house and they’re going to have all the opportunities to be treated fairly. 

The most egregious failure to do that, I’ve seen, is with the League of Women Voters. 

MassNews: What did the League of Women Voters do to earn such a reputation with you? 

Stephens: Several years ago, Mr. Guy Wickwire decided to run for school committee. The League of Women Voters asked him to be a on a panel and they were going to ask him questions from the floor. These were written questions, but the moderator had the right to edit and choose which questions would be presented. Mr. Wickwire was known to be a conservative Christian. He was critical of the schools and of the school committee, both philosophically and economically. He was a capable man and well qualified for the position. And the question they posed to Mr. Wickwire was, "Do you think homosexuality is a disease or a way of life, and do you think homosexuals are disgusting?" 

That was the question posed by the League of Women Voters to Mr. Guy Wickwire, who was running for school committee. 

His answer was: "I don’t know whether it’s a disease or a way of life, but it’s not my way of life. And by the way, what has this got to do with the race for school committee?" 

When I heard that, I decided we needed something else and we needed it desperately. 

MassNews: So that was the precipitating event that brought about the formation of the Concord Forum. 

Stephens: That’s what finally did it. I went to some other folk in town who were politically active and they agreed we needed an alternative. 

Concord, the seed bed for liberty in this country, could have the name Ichabod written across it, the glory has departed. 

It was my intention, seeing what was going on in town, that if people were going to have anything like liberty from the impositions of a few select people in town who thought they knew better than everybody else, there needed to be a forum where people could discuss issues without fear. 

MassNews: So you started Concord Forum and you began hosting and televising debates on the local cable channel. Are you seeing the desired results? 

Stephens: I had one former president of the League of Women Voters, who was a candidate in one of the debates we had, and afterwards she said to me, "David, whenever I’ve met before the League of Women Voters, I’ve always felt extremely nervous. But you made me feel good." That was a real plus for us. To be able to provide her with the opportunity to feel at ease and present her point of view means that Concord Forum was doing its job. 
 

Stephens: The Town Meetings in our towns are usually nothing more than a rubber stamp for the establishment, to simply ratify what the few who are in power wish to say. 

We’ve had to struggle against that here in Concord. With some success, I might say. We brought up the issue of changing the voting in town to voting at the polls. We’ve got the town to a divided mind on the subject, a 50-50 split in the town right now. It’s probably going to be shifting in our favor as time goes on, because the town meeting is being perceived more and more as the playground of less than five percent of the people. By the time you get to the end of town meeting that may be one percent. At that particular time is when they have all the land and bylaw-type issues brought for action. Town meeting is not a level playing field for the citizens of the town. 

Most people don’t even bother to go anymore because they view it as a losing proposition. It’s my contention, and that of some others, that voting at the polls will make a difference. That’s been demonstrated in places like Vermont and a few other places where it’s been put in place. 

They’ve been fighting us tooth and nail simply because it means a threat to their power structure. 

MassNews: How is Concord Forum supported financially? 

Stephens: We’ve found that we’ve been able to function very well with a very minimal budget. We’ve had some good support from some members who were able to provide funds for some of the more expensive mailings and things like that. But, other than that we simply do a lot of it out of our own pockets. And we’ve been successful so far. We had a reasonably good reputation with people. 

MassNews: Would you like to see this concept repeated in other towns? 

Stephens: One of the things that has been at the back of my mind, but just hasn’t come to realization, is that I’d like to see a network of Concord Fora. I’d like to see a Lexington Forum and a Billerica Forum and a Wayland Forum, you name it, across the whole expanse of the state of Massachusetts. 

There has to be an independent venue in each town where people can come together and not be bound by some sort of false ideological commitment – to political correctness or to the establishment – and have their say. 

If their adversaries want to come and have a say, they’ll be welcome. But they’ll all be treated equally. 

Towns need this form of opportunity. The state needs this sort of grass roots opportunity because people aren’t being listened to at the state level. 

We also have plans to start our own Concord Forum website, which will be a forum for debate, and will allow people to go and do research and come back. It will be a moderated group, however. Some of these e-groups are just free floating and often descend into trivia. This will be an opportunity for anyone who wants to take part. Even the internet is a place that could benefit from this kind of forum. 

We’ve been very successful at working with cable television. We’re looking into the possibility of a series of contributions to cable that we’d be sponsoring and producing. 

Concord Forum can be reached at 978-369-5886. The email address is davidstephens2@compuserve.com. 
 

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