The details of the project are available here but the project
itself isn’t the point of this post.
After spending 2.5 hours standing at West Lafayette City Hall and
watching the process work it reminded me how fortunate I am to live here. Regardless of the outcome of the approval
vote today I wasn’t worried about being gunned down on the way out of the
building. I wasn’t worried about my
family being persecuted for my involvement.
I wasn’t worried that my place of employment would be attacked. I knew that whatever the outcome everyone
would move forward and life would continue without issue.
I think we often times take this for granted. We get all worked up in a situation and
supporting our causes that we don’t realize how fortunate we are to be able to
get worked up and passionate about supporting our causes and that we are able to
communicate that passion and zeal to others in a public process.
Today was a great example of that process. Many folks spoke, both for and against our
project and no one was booed, no one was harassed, no one was laughed out of
the room, even though there were a few opportunities, like the person who addressed
the group and wanted to talk about global warming. Talk about the wrong setting.
In the case today, we were able to get the approval we were
seeking. Agree or disagree with the
outcome the discussion was civil and respectful. Our freedom to express ourselves is precious and
we shouldn’t take it for granted, even with those with whom we may not agree.
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