Editor,
So what is the noise issue about?
Bob Wilbur has told us what the noise issue isn’t about.
Of course it isn’t about who is and who is not a patriot.
But he hasn’t told us what it is about for him — now it has become very clear.
Behind the rhetoric of $10 words, beyond the hypocrisy of saying Outlying Field should not be a symbol to divide, and beyond diminishing Martin Luther King Day by comparing a dispute regarding OLF to the Civil Right struggle. He has revealed his only real concern is N.I.M.B.Y.
He doesn’t want OLF in his back yard — he wants it in yours
It is hypocritical to say one does not want to divide the community when the same person defines those that support OLF as irresponsible and reprehensible; when one describes the opposition position as being trumped up, and our politicians as myopic and ignoring their oath of office (because they don’t agree with him).
How can one say they don’t want to divide when they readily admit they are still miffed at a neighbor that has a different position then them.
The facts of an argument always speak for themselves — but when one has few supporting facts, demeaning the other side is a the fallback of a weak argument.
But here is the bottom line unwittingly buried in the letter.
There is the argument about the “immense human cost of life-damaging noise, safety and fuel dumping.”
The solution proposed by Bob is to add another runway to Ault Field and, if Bob’s argument is true, move more of that immense human cost of life-damaging noise, safety concerns and fuel dumping to Oak Harbor — because that is OK as long as it is not in his back yard.
By now we have all heard and read the arguments on both sides. There is little need to go over them because the courts will soon decide.
However, I remember when I bought my house nine years ago here in a relatively quite zone, and I paid much more for that quiet than I would have for the same house in the noise zone of Coupeville.
I just wonder if OLF goes away and Bob’s house goes up in value, will he donate that unearned increase to the Navy?
Marc De Jong
Oak Harbor
