Taking back NIMBY...
I know I promised new writers (and they are coming), but I
have to take one more whack at eminent domain. This is why…
So, a banker, an energy industry worker, and a land agent
stumble onto a post…
I confess. A few days after ribbing Clean Line for
“sponsoring” ads on Facebook, we boosted a post for our petition with the help
of the Arkansas Citizens Against Clean Line Energy page. I know, I know… but we
thought it would really help us reach more people. We were right. And out of
the many, many people who viewed our post, we only got negative comments from
three. The land agent was by far the
most entertaining. I’m blocking out his name and picture here on the off chance
that he actually works for Contract Land Staff and used some bad judgment in
breaking Clean Line’s Code of Conduct.
It’s his job… He’s defensive… We get it. We’re all human.
Of course, as a rule
we don’t remove comments. People sometimes, but comments never. Why? Because
that’s playing pretty dirty (cough, cough) and because if we can’t defend our
position, publicly, we don’t really have one.
Aside from pointing out the obvious irony in his statement,
I want you to pick up on the essence of what he’s saying… No, not that we don’t
know what we’re talking about. See if you can guess…
Got it? It’s essentially the same thing we got from the
other two people… And what I’ve heard from a couple more as well, members of
the Sierra Club specifically...
“We all have to make sacrifices and it’s not like
they take the land for free. It’s just NIMBY.”
Now, aside from the fact that the people who say that most
often aren’t the ones being asked to make the sacrifice, I have a real problem
with anyone who dismisses another person’s situation out of hand because of
what they judge it to be. That denotes a rather disturbing lack of empathy and almost
seems like a kind of defense mechanism to keep the dismissor from having to
think too long and hard about what they’re suggesting. It’s like people who
tell other people that they’re going to Hell without the slightest real
consideration of what they are so flippantly condemning someone to. Whether you’re
a believer of not, especially if you are, that’s not cool.
But how do you really wrap your head around what eminent
domain does? How do you explain a taking to someone who’s never experienced it?
Because really, there is no other area in our lives where something like
eminent domain is acceptable. Yes, we pay taxes… but we all pay them. Some more
than others, but still. This gets into why it is so important that eminent
domain be so carefully guarded... Used so sparingly and with such thought and
consideration. It’s hard to answer the question, “When is eminent domain okay?”
It’s almost easier to identify when it isn’t. But rather than get into all
that… again, let’s do this…
I propose a thought experiment. An exercise in empathy.
C’mon… It’ll be fun and I’ll get to show off my babies.
Babies! What kind of warped mother compares her babies to
property?
Ugh, I know! But stay with me through this part and then you
can bail if you want… because this is gonna be long.
First of all, there is nothing more precious to me than my
kids. For a lot of people on this line, and the others, the same is true… but
their land is a close second. Why? Because it’s what they live off of. It’s
their retirement plan. It’s what they’ll leave for their children. It’s their
past, present, and future. And, like our children, we only get to nurture it
for a little while. We are the stewards. The protectors. We are responsible for
what it becomes.
Second, children are what is most precious to most of us. At
this point, I can’t think of any other group of beings so universally adored
and for whom most of us have some kind of connection. So, no, children are not
the same as land, but windmills are not the same as transmission lines and
goodness knows Clean Line has enough pictures of turbines on their literature,
so here we go…
This is my son. He’s in disguise to protect his privacy.
He’s nine and he’s brilliant. Not in a “River Tam before the Alliance summer
camp” kind of way, but brilliant. He reads at an eleventh grade level. Math
comes easy. So does science. Getting dressed, not so much. He comes out of his
room with his undershirt over his flannel on a regular basis. His shoes are
always untied… or knotted beyond belief with the loose ends trailing behind him.
He’s incredibly sensitive to the needs and emotional temperature of other
people. He has a deep sense of justice… a regard for the dignity of others.
This is my daughter… burping. You can’t tell from this
picture how incredibly beautiful she is. We call her “The General” because,
from infancy, she has had a remarkable ability to shape her environment (and
the people in it) to suit her needs. She is also brilliant, but where my son is
less concerned with the temporal, she has a common sense that is frighteningly
efficient.
This is my baby. I’m not sure who he’ll be quite yet. He’s
musical. He rocks the harmonica and sings all the time. He’s also a snuggler,
apt to run up and hug a stranger’s legs. He likes to grab my face, a tiny hand on
each cheek, look deep into my eyes, and nod. I don’t know what he’s nodding at,
but he says, “YES!!” with his whole little being.
So, during this experiment you are going to be me. My family
is your family… And I am going to come for your son...
I work for a company partnering with the government to find
children we think will make excellent doctors. There’s a shortage of doctors,
especially primary care physicians, and while we think you are doing a
perfectly adequate job of raising your son, if we take him now and turn him
into a doctor, the public will benefit in the long run.
How will they benefit? Well, the school we plan to use to
train him will benefit from the influx of resources. Eventually, his patients
will benefit. And, of course the company will make a profit. And we can’t
forget about the nurses. Don’t you care about the nurses? They need jobs. How
selfish of you not to give up your son for the nurses. Don’t you care about
other people?
Besides, it’s not like you won’t see him. There will be a
video feed. Everyday you’ll be able to see him. You can’t kiss him, you can’t
hug him, and you certainly can’t make any decisions about his future. You will
be required to pay for his room and board, but we’re going to give you a puppy
to make this easier for you. Don’t you want a puppy? Fine, we’ll give you two
puppies and some cash. There, aren’t you happy now?
No? I don’t understand why not. No offense, but it really
doesn’t matter that he wants to be a paleontologist. All nine year olds want to
be paleontologists. This is better. This is about a better future. If we want a
better future, we all have to make sacrifices. People have been sacrificing
their children since Mayan times, why should you be treated differently. This
is the way it’s always been done. We can’t change it.
I understand your concerns, but if we wait a few more years, it’ll take
him longer to graduate and we’ll lose the income he could have been producing (besides, advances in tele-medicine could make this program obsolete by then). Physician’s assistants? Nurse practitioners? No, those things don’t work. It
has to be this way. This is the only way that makes sense for us. And, frankly,
you can’t afford to take us to court. We have more money, connections, and
expertise than you do, and when it’s all over we’ll just take him anyway. The
most the court will give you is more cash and puppies. You don’t get to argue
whether it’s fair for us to take him in the first place. Don't bother, you’ll just be giving money
to the lawyers. Hey, everybody’s got to have a doctor.
Oh, goodness, no. He won’t come back here to practice. There
aren’t enough patients here. He’ll be in Charlotte, or maybe Richmond… We’re
not really sure. We don’t have any places set up for him to work yet, but it
won’t be here. Maybe he can come back for Christmas, but we can’t guarantee
anything. We’re not going to commit to that yet, that’s just one of the
alternatives we’re looking at.
Can you have him back if it doesn’t work out? No, you don’t
get him back. We’ll just sell him to another firm… Which we might do anyway, in
which case, they’ll have different rules for you, but no more cash or puppies.
Why, no... We’ve never done a project quite like this before,
though we’ve been in the medical industry for years. We’re brand new. Isn’t
that innovative? Don’t you trust us? Here, look at this art deco sculpture of a
doctor. Doesn’t that make you feel better? See, I’m smiling. I’m nice, right?
You can’t be upset about this if I smile and act nice.
I don’t understand why you say you’ve never heard of us
before. We sent you a postcard. No, it didn’t say that we wanted to take your
son, but it said we were thinking about starting a school. I don’t know why you
wouldn’t have seen it. We’ve been very active in the community-- We’ve been
talking to literacy campaigns and state/federal officials about this for years.
We took out ads in the paper. You don’t read the newspaper every day? Oh, well.
I guess you don’t deserve to have a say in what happens to your kid if you’re
not going to read the paper every day.
Now, before I leave, I have to tell you… I’m looking at your
daughter. I’m not really sure if I’ll be back for her yet. I have to see how
things pan out, but she’s a very smart young lady. Why are you crying? You’ll
get another puppy! And you still have your baby. But you should know that I can
come back for him at any time also. If fact, I, or someone from another
company, can come back for any child you have or may ever have. There’s no
requirement that we stop taking them after we’ve taken so many. We may
have to eventually pay for you to have another if we’re using the federal
government to do it, but not if we’re using the state. Anyway, we can take that
child away, too. It just makes more
sense, don’t you see? It's for the public good. You’ve already given up a child. In some vague way here,
I’m acknowledging the damage I’ve done to you, but only in the sense that since
the damage has already been done, it’s easier to hurt you more than to start
fresh with someone else. You don’t want anyone else to be hurt do you? Though I
still don’t understand why you’re upset. Puppies! Cash! Yay!
Ugh, I’m so tired of people like you, you know that? All you
NOOMK’s. That’s what it is you know, you’re just a NOOMK—Not One of My Kids.
You don’t have any real objections to this project. No real justification for
not wanting to give him to us. Nothing you’ve said tonight meets our criteria
for a real concern. You’re just rationalizing your NOOMK-ism. It’s sad really,
that you are so very selfish.
Whew! Okay. Well, I hope that gives someone a little
perspective. Now obviously there are going to be some people who are really
okay with, or even want, the transmission line (or at least I hope there are
since Clean Line seems to think they’ll be able to “negotiate” the majority of
the line—with eminent domain at their back of course), and that’s their
prerogative (though it may suck for neighbors not hosting the line who'll lose
property value). This exercise is about those people who don’t want it. Of
course, I've used a touch of hyperbole, but I’m not quite sure how else to get
through. I feel a bit like the guy in Whoville trying to find that one last
“yip” or “yop” to break through the atmosphere.
We are not unaware of the world around us. We’re not
oblivious to climate change. We’re not blissfully revving our engines (at least
not most of us). We live the land. The drought that Diana Rivera referred to in
her Congestion Study comment… we lived it. All we are saying… Well, all I’m
saying... is that there has got to be a better way than this. And if we don’t
stand up and say it now, the future of our energy industry is going to work a
lot like the past… except meaner and more streamlined, with even less local
control.
Let me be clear, the responsibility for the opposition that
is blossoming in every state in which Clean Line is proposing a project falls directly on their own shoulders. It has a lot less to do
with NIMBY than it does with Clean Line’s failure to effectively and
proactively engage the people who will be most directly impacted by their
projects. And the people out there, few as they have been, who feel so smug in
throwing out the NIMBY label, need to pull their heads out of Clean Line’s
pretty, glossy brochures and think hard about what that acronym really means.
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