To the editor:
Jaffrey has begun talking in and out of Town Meeting about the community rights amendment Rep. Susan Emerson (R-Rindge) introduced in Concord this year.
It codifies a right communities already have to protect our health, safety and welfare. It didn’t pass, but legislators will consider it again next year.
This is not about “home rule” as a Koch brothers-affiliated lobbyist and Rep. Frank Sterling (R-Jaffrey) have said publicly. It is about growing a movement to dismantle the corporate state as a prerequisite for exercising our inalienable right to protect our communities from corporate harms.
We should be able to say no to a project, like the one proposed by Kinder Morgan, unless we are convinced it is in our community’s best interest and serves the greater public good.
Do you believe that was the intent of our earliest citizens who ratified our N.H. Constitution in 1784? I do.
But I’ve attended the CELDF-sponsored Democracy School, so I understand 1) how we got where we are now; and 2) what we need to do next.
This is about developing our knowledge and skills as engaged citizens to push for systemic change.
It’s valuable to discuss whether “sustainable environmental and economic development can be achieved only when the people affected by governing decisions are the ones that make them” should be included. Rep. Richard Ames (D-Jaffrey) and I disagree. Is there consensus, majority view or deep division in the rest of New Hampshire on that point?
Let’s talk and find out!
Why can large corporations overrule what people and communities want for themselves and their future? Democracy School can help you answer that question.
Antioch New England hosted th last one in this area in 2014. To learn more, search online for “CELDF Democracy School.”
If you’d be interested in attending one, contact me at dsumnerinjaffrey@gmail.com.
Deborah Sumner
Jaffrey