[Vision2020] The Silent "Not Much of a" Majority Will Prevail

[Tom Hansen]

A letter in today's (September 21, 2006) Moscow-Pullman Daily News from Gary
Naylor with my comments in [brackets].

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The silent majority will prevail 

I have remained quiet for more than two years. I watched silently as
hysteria, ignorance, conspiratorial actions and a plethora of uninformed,
irrelevant misrepresentations were the order of the day. One of Grandfather
Ralph's contemporaries opined Ralph repositioned himself in his grave at
what his offspring were doing. Probably the same man who sold his acres for
home sites using precious water and garnering a nice profit. 

[MY COMMENTS - A majority of that " hysteria, ignorance, conspiratorial
actions and a plethora of uninformed, irrelevant misrepresentations" is
substantiated with facts and supported by local professionals, Mr. Naylor.
I would further consider additional home sites to be considerably more
preferable, when it comes to water use, than clay mining.]

One woman worried Naylor Farms would leave her little water to maintain her
home site; the same lady who drip irrigated her 70-plus trees exceeding the
2,500 gallons of water per day Idaho law allows without a state water
permit. The vocal minority can skirt the law?

[MY COMMENTS - If somebody is in violation of Idaho law, Mr. Naylor, could
you please elaborate.  The vocal minority CANNOT skirt the law, Mr. Naylor,
(unless . . . well . . . that's another topic for another day) whether as a
local group of concerned citizens or whimpering from southern California.] 

At Farmers Market, a table shows a picture of a Georgia strip clay mine. Can
you imagine the gross ignorance? Can you feel the conspiratorial effort in
the group that printed this photo leading to negative feeling toward the
Naylor conditional use permit when they were told Naylors were going to do
the exact same thing on their acreage by absentee owners. They ignored the
fact my brother and his wife have lived in Moscow more than 30 years.

[MY COMMENTS - Long-term residency by a sibling, Mr. Naylor, does not
entitle somebody to rape the land.]

Let's not confuse these faithful myrmidons with the truth. This group of
gaggling geese has skirted the truth since day one. Flying occasionally are
members of government and elected officials. It is preposterous that 40
acres used for extraction of sand and gravel, and then reclaimed, would be a
death knell to Moscow, the aquifer and the agricultural community.

[MY COMMENTS - As we do not know the quantity of available water in the
aquifer, Mr. Naylor, perhaps the water expended by a mining operation may
even be considered negligible.  Now, if we can only avoid breathing the
air.]

The law is the law and signatures on a petition to stop the permit are
meaningless. Naylor Farms, established in 1877, will prevail. The organizers
of this loud vocal minority cannot choose which laws to follow. The law
supersedes signatures whether from the vocal minority or the silent
majority. 

[MY COMMENTS - How arrogant of you, Mr. Naylor, to even imply that a
continued petition against your selfish desires, by an ever-growing number
of local citizens is meaningless.  May the people prevail!] 

Gary Naylor, San Diego, Calif.

[MY COMMENTS - Isn't this a capper?  Gary Naylor, the self-professed hero of
the local citizenry (here in Moscow, Idaho), who expresses pride in his
family's lengthy tenure here in the Palouse, writes to us from San Diego,
California.] 

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Vandalville, Idaho

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"A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men." 

- Thomas Paine (English Writer, 1737-1809)

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