[Vision2020] My Column / Megaloads & Hippies

[Joe Campbell]

Paul you're missing the point that a lot of the outrage has nothing to do
with environmentalism. In truth, there is a lot at stake environmentally
speaking (as Ted and others have noted) but I don't want to get into that
because my main gripe in this issue is the way its been handled by council.
Some people -- many people in Moscow I bet -- think this is an important
issue worthy of discussion and opportunities for genuine public discussion
on the matter have been (so far) thwarted. The council didn't let the public
talk and ask questions about the issue, they steamrolled it. Now both you
and Hank are trying to sweep a whole set of diverse and meaningful concerns
under the same offensive heading -- the concerns of "hippies" and radical
anti-environmentalists. The fact that friends of mine don't like the traffic
early in the morning less than 1 block from where their two kids sleep --
just to name one concern that I've heard (a concern that has been raised on
the V as well) -- is all covered because these are the concerns of radical,
communist hippies. What an offensive, arrogant bunch of bull.

You and Hank should read the posts by Carl and Saundra and others, which
raise a spectrum of non-environmentalist concerns, a bit more carefully.
Otherwise I get to sweep you, Hank, and the council under the heading of
"offensive idiot." I don't see why you get to use that rhetorical trick --
sweeping a set of diverse arguments and opinions under one offensive heading
-- but somehow it is off limits to me. As I've always said, politics is a
game the rules of which are determined by your opponent.

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 6:45 AM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 06/08/2011 12:18 AM, Ted Moffett wrote:
> > Note he does not address any of the objections expressed on
> > Vision2020, to the facts or logic in his column, in his response on
> > Vision2020.
>
> On the other hand, I haven't seen anyone here address his main point,
> i.e. that the highways are public and the need for a special permit
> because of large load size shouldn't be used as an excuse to
> discriminate against businesses that some people disagree with.
>
> I'm not necessarily behind giving the megaloads a free pass, since I
> think that Sunil's points about the noise and the lack of public input
> at the council meeting are good ones, but I do think that if people here
> object to the Kearl oil sands project there are better ways of
> expressing that opinion than to throw bureaucratic roadblocks (no pun
> intended) in their way just because we have the opportunity to do so.
>
> Paul
>
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