October 27, 2020
Illinois, Letters

What does ‘acceptable loss’ mean?

Readers' Letters | Clinton Journal | Posted Oct 26, 2020 | theclintonjournal.com

What does “acceptable loss” mean? Also known as “acceptable damage,” it’s a military euphemism used to indicate casualties or destruction inflicted by the enemy that is considered minor or tolerable.

During the Special Use Permit for Alta Farms II vote, this phrase rang loud for me. Seven county board members considered families like mine and the impacts we will suffer as an acceptable loss. I felt betrayed by my elected leaders. Would we have moved here if we had known that we were considered to be acceptable losses of the community?

Absolutely not.

Would anyone?

I don’t think so.

An industrial wind project isn’t promised to keep my friends, family and community safe OR healthy. The night of the vote, I heard many people say they are considering moving. Nobody wants to be in a place where they feel unsafe. People especially have a right to be safe in their own homes. These are 599-foot- tall industrial wind turbines that will cause hours of shadow flicker on homes and produce noise that doesn’t even meet the Illinois Pollution Control Board regulations!

If I knew my decisions were going to hurt my neighbors, I’d be stricken with grief. Why would an elected leader ignore so much evidence when it will cause so many people distress? They had the power to protect people, but instead they disregarded evidence, disregarded their advisory boards, disregarded overwhelming opposition from the community and disregarded the very real impacts on very real families like mine.

That’s why incumbent county board members need to be voted out. We can’t trust them to take care of us. We have been shown that in their eyes, we are all acceptable losses.

I urge my community to vote for Megan Myers in District C, and for Buck Carter, Jamie Prestegaard and Aaron Kammeyer in District A.

Thank you,

Your Neighbor

Joie Ocheltree

Clinton

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/10/27/what-does-acceptable-loss-mean/