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Turbines have affected friendships
Credit: By JOHN METHIA | July 02, 2013 | www.southcoasttoday.com ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
My neighbor wrote a letter you published last week in which she referenced me by name (“Letter: Silent majority not against turbines,” June 25). This letter is my rebuttal.
Another play from the pages of the “big wind” playbook is being played out across our town. That play is to divide and conquer, pit neighbor against neighbor. For many years Julie Lawton and my family have been friends and neighbors. While we have disagreed on the turbine subject, we have always been congenial. To my dismay Julie has chosen to cast a negative light over our friendship with a letter to the editor.
This is some of what she had to say: “John is one of the most outspoken opponents of the turbines, and has been ever since before the first shovel of dirt was moved. He tried to recruit me to join Windwise multiple times and I refused,” and “Since when are the loud few the ruling group? I believe in alternative energy and am not one of the ‘NIMBY people.'”
There are no initiation ceremonies, secret handshakes, sharing of blood or for that matter “recruitment” into Windwise. We are not “loud” or “few.” We are a strong, determined, intelligent and committed group of friends and neighbors.
“NIMBY people” we are not, as a matter of fact, many in our group live nowhere near the health danger zone of the turbines. Personally, I’ve been unjustly ridiculed and ostracized, called crazy and abrasive and even told that I’m a big oil investor! What I am is a parent, husband and neighbor that is fighting the unjust.
When you take on the Goliath that is the big wind industry, stand strong for what you believe in, protect your family and provide a voice for those who are suffering, along the way you’ll lose some friends. I am proud to call every one of my neighbors, those who work and stand with me, who endure the ridicule, who won’t bow down or be silenced, and who continue to persevere, my new-found friends.
It’s been a long and hard fought battle. When the Goliath is conquered, our only reward will simply be life as it used to be. We refuse to be divided or conquered, and in victory my neighborhood and our town will be united – like it used to be!
John Methia lives in Fairhaven.
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