Two Ships

To the editor:
    “Two ships set sail, one east and one west, never the twain to meet. ‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales that determine thence they go.” (author unknown by me)
    It is not the wind that will determine the fate of the local wind power turbines situated on our hilltops but the electorates. It will be the votes of the state officials and the local people. The pros and cons will meet. Much will depend on the rhetoric. Will it be the negative thinking of half truths, falsehoods, sentimental feelings that will prevail or will it be the positive facts and a real analysis of the whole situation that will prevail? The positive thinkers will try to bring out that the electricity generated by these wind turbines will more than offset the negative. There always seems to be a resistance to change.
    Looking to the past, many of these changes are to our advantage. My father told me of when the surveyors were surveying for the B&A Railroad, their original survey planned to go into the village of Sherman Mills. However, one prominent store keeper and a representative in the legislature objected. He argued that this was a residential town and also that the locomotives would scare the horses, as the rural residents came into towns in the horse and signal wagon or horse and sleigh in the winter. Hence, those against the change won out and the B&A tracks were laid in Sherman Station. Sherman Station developed into quite a community with its lumber mill, potato houses, stores and residential area. The railroad tracks reached Sherman Station in 1892.
    A positive decision was made and a community was established. A poor decision can mean the loss of an opportunity.
Bev Rand
Island Falls