Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Schadenfreude, Harpswell Variety

(Ed note: File this one under schadenfreude, which we introduced you to yesterday.)

Remember the Harpswell LNG tanker terminal controversy of some years back?  The idea was to ‘repurpose’ the decommissioned fuel supply terminal in Harpswell that once delivered aviation fuel to the Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Here’s at least one archived article to remind you of what it was about:

http://archive.bangordailynews.com/2004/06/16/harpswell-group-petitions-for-second-lng-vote/

As it happens, we came upon a letter to the editor in today’s Ostrich from a Harpswell resident.  It reads as follows:

Enough already with the train foes

To the Editor:

Enough already with Save Brunswick West.

After three years of bellyaching over the train layover area, I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: The trains and their tracks have been in the same spot for very long.

I’m 45 and they have been in the same spot. My grandma used to tell stories about her using the train in her younger days. My point is that those tracks and the trains have in Brunswick longer than most of the Save Brunswick West members have been alive.

Why did you move in to a house so close the tracks if you’re a railroad hater?

Asking the Town Council for their support is wrong. The Town Council is there for the entire town of Brunswick and the taxpayers of Brunswick, not just your street.

Timothy Halpin
Harpswell

This letter, after a bit of cobweb removal, reminded us of that controversy.

 

So we posted this comment to the letter on line:

If you don't know the difference between a train and a 600 + foot long 40 foot high building, maybe you should abstain from this conversation. Hint: It's a BIG difference, kind of like the difference between a lobster boat passing your waterfront property, and a supertanker mooring off your deck.

Doesn’t anyone these days have the ability to stop for a moment and think critically?  Is the general public so information starved that they have no sense of proportion and context?

If this is typical of society these days, we’ve got far bigger problems than running loss leader Amtrak ego-trips to Brunswick, so they can cart area residents and their shekels elsewhere. 

Though perhaps none more illuminating.

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