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Opportunity as community ‘to talk to each other’ Each of us as Americans holds dear our right in society to speak publicly about things that matter to us. The ongoing public discourse centered around the proposal to auger mine at Rosa, a site previously strip mined in the late 1970s, affords us a rare opportunity as a community to voice our strongly held views and to talk to each other about what we value most in this area where we live and play. At any time, and especially during times of economic hardship, it is fundmental that the rights of individuals be upheld and the actions of corporations be held accountable. The landowners, both on and off the proposed mine site, and public at large are entitled to their positiions and opinions. All of us have a stake in the outcome. We each stand to lose something we greatly value. For me, a clean river I can swim in and a tranquility not marred by a constant droning of machinery are priceless. In some sense what we say to each other doesn’t really matter. What we say may not affect the outcome of the permitting process. The Alabama Surface Mining Commission (ASMC) makes its determination independent of our personal preferences, our pros and cons. In making its determination, ASMC relies largely on the guidelines and recommendations of the agencies it works with. After ASMC finishes its permitting process and a decision is made, the things we have said, our accusations and recriminations will remain among us. How we deal with the outcome, how we go about repairing our differences matters a lot. It is possible to have lively and heated public discourse while retaining respect for others’ opinions. The manner in which this discourse occurs tells us a lot about who we are, how we function as a community and how committed we are to protecting the quality of life we are blessed with in Blount County.
Time after time as I drive up and down Ala 79 at its junction with U.S. 231, I look at the disfigured landscape and see it as a symbol of an earlier failure of our citizenry to insist upon an equitable balance between private interests and public good. |
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