January 27, 2016
Letters, Vermont

Thank you, Swanton!

Opinion: Thank you, Swanton! | S.J. Seymour | Burlington Free Press | January 26, 2016 | www.burlingtonfreepress.com

You voted with your hearts and your heads a few weeks ago with the vote to oppose the industrial wind turbines. Too bad the vote has no actual teeth with the state, and the developer, Travis Belisle, has said he is going forward with the project anyways. Talk about being a good neighbor. Maybe he missed Mr. Rogers’s show growing up?

Vermonters pride themselves on being there to help a neighbor out in need. And you rose to the occasion by coming out to vote (even though it was deer season!). Clearly, all across the state from Swanton to Irasberg to Windham and beyond, Vermonters are finally getting the message and speaking up…but is anyone listening?

We don’t want industrial wind in our state. Period.

In my short time in becoming educated about all things wind turbines, the message is clear: all across the planet, these things are going up in our name. To save us. Like the latest elixir of snake oil from the quack doctor out of the back of a wagon. And now it’s wind turbines. As Upton Sinclair suggested: “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

The wind developers tell us how much we need these steel monstrosities to save the world, and it’s for our children’s future, I’ve got to wonder about a culture that starts to make rash, unthinking decisions based upon a deadline that would do more damage overall than what we started to begin with. In almost all circumstances, serious reflection is needed before we do things that are irreversible – like blowing up mountain tops.

Our best interests are served by being good stewards to the planet and good neighbors to our, well, neighbors.

Thanks again, Swanton!

S.J. Seymour lives in Fairfield.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/01/27/thank-you-swanton/