Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A Dear Sister In the Fight: Reflections on Living In a Gasfield

My friend writes:

I live in Susquehanna County, but I will not shop here or participate in their Stepford wives activities-especially there free hot dog give aways. I drive the extra distance for everything now. Yes, I must pay taxes if I want to keep my home. I am torn between just giving them our home-who else would buy it? Would you move your family to a gasfield? Would you pay a price for a beautiful contemporary timberframe in the middle of all this? We moved here with the intent of participating and living in a lovely quiet part of the world. We saw art and artists. We saw organic farming and a few nice looking farms. The roads were quiet and the nights were heaven under the stars. We made friends, enjoyed neighborhood barbeques, hikes in the woods. I walked fearlessly and happily for miles each day with my big handsome dog. Now I will not walk these roads or woods. I do not know who lives in many of the places and many are empty. My community scorns me for keeping them from their gas wells. Sit down with the folks who maligned me and called us liars? What I know to be true of this place now is that the folks do not care about quality of life or truth or honor. They laugh at folks who care about clean streams and protected wetlands and wildlife. They ignore the science on air pollution. They do not want to know because I believe they have made their deal. They serve a different god and it is the gas lords.

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