Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Kirkland cell-phone tower


Kirkland cell-phone tower

Submitted by Mary L. Gervais (not verified) on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 16:30.
Mayor McMurchie has been trying to avoid dealing with the cell-tower issue from the time it exploded in Pointe-Claire a couple of years ago. The protests here resulted from poorly thought-out decisions by the city on the location of 2 out of 3 proposed Rogers towers.

In addition to any possible direct long-term health risks, aesthetics and effects on nearby property values, for many thinking people cell-phone towers have in effect become lightning rods for a whole range of larger citizen concerns about what we value and cherish, both as individuals and as communities when confronted by the never-ending, in-your-face media barrage of "newer, bigger/smaller, FASTER, FASTER, FASTER!!!".

Among them:how do we develop a healthy relationship with technology so that it does truly function as our servant, rather than as our master, as is too often the case now? How many apps buy happiness? 20 thousand? 100 thousand? And what are we in danger of losing, as our attention spans and life skills shrink in direct proportion?
What is the role and relative power of citizens vis-a-vis ever-larger, unaccountable corporations whose one and only motivation is ever-expanding profit? In reference to the infamous "citizens united" American Supreme Court decision, a Texas political observer said it well: "I'll believe a corporation is a citizen when one is hanged".

There is already a lot of pressure on municipal politicians and we expect them to deal with it. We expect them to really listen to a wide range of input on any given situation and to make the best informed, balanced and fair decisions possible. We expect them to educate themselves on a given topic when necessary and we expect them to be guardians of the local public good. That is what we elect and pay them a salary to do. Otherwise why have them at all?

"Ninety per cent of our time would be spent on deciding where a tower could go and could not go," he said. I believe that is what my high-school English teacher called  "hyperbole". And choosing to bury one's head in the sand is an abdication of responsibility and leadership.

Susan

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