Good neighbors

We’d all like to be wild and free, to do anything we feel like doing. The Bible says rebellion and selfishness are in our very DNA. But is it wrong to wish we could strain out the viruses attacking modern culture, and return to a simpler time, when most folks were good neighbors? What a relief it would be not to have so many humans around, their very presence creating boundaries to our world.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, as one letter writer stated a few weeks ago, we only had to listen to “our people”? They understand us. They’re the best.

But history is one long tale of human cultures clashing, at times violently. Polk simmers in a cold war, an Iron Curtain preventing neighborly discussion. Nothing highlights that unfortunate wall like a good old zoning debate.

Some 1,000 petitioners, a couple hundred in person, put the screws to board chairman Harry Denton last week, some outright asking him to choose “our people” over “them.” By doing so, they disrespected the chairman’s position as a representative of all – and his own conscience. Denton knows everyone wants the same thing – good neighbors.

Anti-zoning petitioners abhor government intrusion. They worry about the cost of living, and regular folks having a home they can still afford. Much is changing, they know, but they believe zoning has no answers. Good neighbors, in their view, simply do not attempt to control others.
Now no one thinks zoning is a perfect answer for a complex, imperfect world. But zoning proponents believe good neighbors band together and bind certain community standards into law. Good neighbors do not take profits at the expense of all others, stealing forever mountain views, polluting streams, putting up flashing, neon signs. Good neighbors do not build roads that ambulances cannot climb. Anti-zoners mistrust standards, prefer to cross their fingers and leave all to chance. Good luck with that.

But so be it. Enough with wars, hot and cold. — JB