The Time Warp.
Open For Dialogue...
A recent article I wrote about the Windham Path has garnered some bizarre responses I think from people in my home town. I spoke of the importance of understanding the economic impact of the Windham Path as a green space that will generate funds to drive a new era of economic development in the town. This was sadly not received well. One member of the contentious Friends of Windham Mountain, NY said the following:”Outsiders (meaning my friend Seth Sturm) however only ever see it for the money. Greed isn’t a good look bub. That’s not what this town is about.” Of course I’m puzzled a bit by this interesting take because on one hand town citizens are commenting on the fact that building a little league sports complex is about the children and the ones that several members commented will “move away from the area”-- so obviously you might ask the next question where do the next generations of Little League Players come from if the town is populated solely by people in their late 40’s and to their 90’s?
But even more perplexing is the general twisting of my intent by some members of the community about the Path’s development. The notion that the Windham Path would become a center for overdevelopment– many of the citizens guarded the idea that we should leverage the path as being Disneyland is a bit interesting to me. I think the locals have come to view the Path as the creation of the transplants and the gentrifiers-thus, it is antithetical to their needs as a community and in fact enrages them. And yet, the Town itself is deeply economically rooted in tourism: “there are over 1,600 people employed locally, with nearly half of those (48.8%) working in the
The facts are clear that Windham, like it or not, employs a plurality of its townspeople within the sphere of service industries that make up the category collectively known as “ tourism”. This is one of our major business sectors in the town’s economic planning. So, it becomes rather amusing to me when it is pointed out that a “Green” space can be more productive to the community through the development of sustainable business models such as low-impact production of Sunflower Oil, Honey, and so on. These are things we can turn into small to medium scale businesses like those in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. I am talking about creating a community that is composed of self-sustaining cooperatives that build on each other’s success in a noncompetitive model. A model that emphasizes ownership of the business by local members in worker-cooperatives, producer cooperatives, and consumer-cooperatives.
The next complaint is why I was ejected from the Friends of Windham, NY Facebook group— here is the answer.
So, Ari Fleischer kicked me out of the Friends of Windham Mountain, NY for supposedly using an alias– I say supposedly since everyone using an account attached to a business is in fact using an alias. But then you have an account named Dirk Diggler (yes, from the Film Boogie Nights) who doesn’t have any issues maintaining his membership. So, I changed my account from Koos De LaRay ( an account I had planned on using to create a fake doomsday prepper in 2015. It was to see if I could make it go viral– then I lost interest.) So, I took this account of mine and signed up to the Friends of Windham Mountain, NY mostly to get intel on what was going around the community. I manage to stay pretty insular most of the time. I don’t really care for the bickering of the small town social media fights. But, I said what the hell, give it a try. Well I did. And Ari didn’t like the fact I changed my name to Silence Dogood in honor of the chicanery of Ben Franklin in his teenage years. And well neither did the good residents of Windham appreciate this name change either. Clearly, one of my good citizens complained I guess. Then I started to use other Facebook Groups to spread my message around the area but they didn’t like my posts either. I guess it is okay to advertise just about anything on some of the groups–just not anything approaching commentary on current affairs.
I was working with a friend of mine Mr. Sturm, who is also interested in the fate of Windham and he offered to help me get my message out to the community. To which users attempted to Doxx him. When that failed to prove that he was anything more than a friend of mine and the town, the members tried to claim he was in fact me. Also demonstrably false since I posted on my Facebook Group this interview. My Facebook group is a truly open and free community space to talk about all issues, even the thorny political ones. Of course, I haven’t made it private— it would appear not many people have been willing to take me up on my many offers to join the group? Perhaps, too much visibility to the general public concerning their vitriolic claims about my politics or intentions on that forum. Otherwise why wouldn’t they take me up on the offer? I’m more than happy to have a civil discussion online or in person– in fact starting next Saturday and every Saturday for the foreseeable future you will be able to find me in the Higher Grounds at 10am holding Court to talk about Important Issues Facing Windham And The Mountain Top! I’ll be wearing a Hawaiian Shirt. I’m ready are you? Open Discussions are the way to understanding.
I myself have been really disturbed by the fact that many of the people who have objected to my ideas to do so by stating Democracy is “Mob Rule” (while I am a big big fan of the Black Sabbath album Mob Rules with Dio 1989) and that we live in a Republic not a democracy. NPR’s excellent article “Is America a democracy or a republic? Yes, it is” quotes political scientist George Thomas, the Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at Claremont McKenna College says the following: "It is mostly disingenuous. The Constitution was meant to foster a complex form of majority rule, not enable minority rule." So, I have to ask what is it that you who claim it is a Republic and not a Democratic Republic with majority rule and indirect representatives really mean by this statement? Are you stating that you wish for Oligarchy or Plutocracy? Seriously, I need to know.
So, if any of you want to comment to me personally you can do so at the following places:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/PCBTjA8kuX5AEENx/
Or In Person Every Saturday Starting August 31st at 10am at the Higher Grounds Cafe on RT 296…