[Vision2020] Monday Public Hearing

[Terry Morin]

The public testimony at last night¹s public hearing on the proposed change
to the zoning code for schools in non-residential areas ran the gamut, but
the most sobering words of the hearing came from David Williams, proprietor
of Paradise Ridge CDs and Tapes, as he described his own experiences on the
business end of the city code. From his description Monday night, Mr.
Williams and his family received the full force of the law, as a consequence
of some apparent violation of the code. No one mounted a large public
campaign to change the law to accommodate his situation, however
unintentional it may have been. And, to be fair, the city of Moscow was
under no legal obligation to give Mr. Williams relief from the requirements
of the law, indeed, the city was obligated, as Mr. Williams put it, to
enforce those requirements, to his own hurt.

With the passage of the proposed zoning ordinance change (on first reading),
allowing NSA to remain in the central business district, the Christian
liberal arts college received, not the full force of law, but something
entirely different, and distinctly Christian. They received grace, not
grudgingly or sparingly, but freely given from an authority they have
otherwise despised. In other circumstances I would be hopeful that the grace
given them would beget a new birth of good citizenship in the administration
of NSA. But other testimony from Mr. Williams and from Mr. Bode about
deceitful and manipulative tactics by the NSA student responsible for
canvassing local businesses for support tell me not to hope. Maybe their
experiences with the student were anomalous. As a downtown business owner,
I've received my share of public and private harassment from some of Pastor
Wilson's followers and "ministries," and am inclined to think the treatment
received by these other proprietors at their hands typical. But this I know,
wherever NSA eventually locates, there are no zoning districts in which
bullying and intimidation are welcome, tolerated, or even allowed with a
Conditional Use Permit.
-- 
Terry and Linda Morin
1232 Tamarack Drive
Moscow, ID  83843
208.882.6251