Just weeks ago the people of Hatfield, Montgomery, Westhampton, Southampton and Northampton lost their representative in Boston when Peter Kocot died. In fact, we lost so much more than one conscientious voice in state government, our voice; we are now deprived of a person who demonstrated by example what a public servant could and should be.
Representative Kocot represented to me a morsel of hope and a reassurance that there are, indeed, honest, decent and kind people out there working with the goal of providing good governance. Peter’s caliber of humble conduct stands out particularly in these acrimonious times when sophomoric taunts and self-aggrandizement pass for governing.
I took for granted that we would always be insulated from the toxic performances of bluster and cant we have witnessed nationally because we always had the solid figure of Peter Kocot to stand between us and the venality. Losing him makes it harder to cling to the hope he inspired.
Peter proved by example that there’s a huge difference between winning an argument and crafting a law. Good faith negotiations (while not headline-worthy) tend to yield more public value than mic drops and snark. At all levels of “discourse,” from D.C. to social media, rancor has replaced discussion and action. While most of us bide our time absorbed in petty ad hominem slap fights, Peter Kocot went about the very hard work of reconciling competing interests and promoting social justice values.
Peter never had to swagger or dominate or demand to be respected. His quietude inspired the trust and regard many politicians hope to manufacture through slick ad campaigns, memes, tweets and posts … but they never quite succeed. They lack what Peter always had: bone-deep, soul-deep integrity.
And he was all of this without a Twitter account or a Facebook page.
We are in a period of great upheaval. The ways we communicate with one another, the means by which we govern and are governed, the very manner by which we form our values have been transformed by this internet thing. We are so immersed in it that it is difficult to step back and recognize how we have changed and are changing, still.
There are beneficial aspects, to be sure, but many of us cannot recognize and address the adverse effects yet. It’s still too soon. I don’t know if the chaos of Washington and the schisms that define our culture can be blamed on this huge cultural shift, but it certainly amplifies our fights and seems to contribute very little toward advancing solutions to very real and existential problems.
That is why the loss of Peter Kocot is even more tragic than losing a friend. He stood as a reminder that calm, thoughtful deliberation is how we sustain communities. People like Pete are rare and hardly ever appreciated while they walk and strive among us. When they are gone, though, we experience their absence whether we know it or not.
Bill Dwight is a Northampton city councilor and a pie wrangler at the Florence Pie Bar.