A CLARIFICATION FROM YESTERDAY

I am very pleased with a couple of metaphors that I introduced into yesterday's post titled " Public Opposition to the Alleged "Cleanup" & SSRA to Justify It". The zombie apocalypse metaphor was dead on, no further explanation needed. Similarly I enjoyed the metaphor of the biased judging that has on occasion plagued various skating competitions. Regarding environmental issues here in Elmira the judges have been and continue to be biased as they are bought and paid for by the polluter. It is a blatantly circuitous and incestuous relationship with the guiltiest parties having the most authority and control over the remediation necessary to at least somewhat restore our damaged environment.

Most municipal councillors are out of their depth on so many municipal issues whether they be taxes, budgets, planning issues, zoning, infrastructure and more. Then throw in environmental issues of complexity and significant detail and councillors most likely simply follow the leader. Whoever on council can best pretend to understand those issues and speak knowledgeably leads council. Unfortunately those council members may simply be best equipped at faking competence and manipulating fellow members rather than be either honest or knowledgeable brokers.

Lastly yesterday I continued the skating competitions metaphor with a discussion of stakeholders sitting in the stands. Again overall I feel that the metaphor is a good one with one slight clarification. I suggested that there was occasional, polite criticism from some of those stakeholders sitting in the stands. Upon rereading my comments I felt that one could interpret my words as a criticism of that polite criticism. In fact I understand that in your face criticism simply is not the Canadian way and it exceeds the comfort level of many honest members of TAG for example, especially newer members who have not been exposed to literally decades of deceit and obfuscation from the guilty parties. Therefore let me be clear. Several TAG members and Chair have been blunt and straightforward with their concerns and criticisms of both Lanxess's and GHD's positions and recommendations and I fully support those well reasoned and thought out positions that TAG have expressed.