Boston Globe
Saturday, June 7, 2003
Natural allies for preservation
The report on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's listing of Minute Man National Historical Park as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places ("Airport foes deploy the Minute Man, May 30) contains extensive criticisms of the designation by US Representative Michael Capuano and Mayor Thomas Menino on the ground that Logan's neighbors also need relief.
We applaud Capuano and Menino for standing up for people's right to enjoy their homes and historic landmarks, and we think that should apply equally in East Boston and in Concord. That's why we have worked together with Communities Against Runway Expansion to protect those rights for everyone.
Representatives of Save Our Heritage have spoken against the proposed Logan runway at a Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act hearing, at the East Boston town meeting convened by Menino, and in other forums.
For too long, Massport has been able to play one community against another in a zero-sum game that only Massport wins. We will all be more powerful when we work together to stop the unbridled airport expansion that threatens all of Greater Boston's historic resources. We hope that someday Capuano and Menino will see that we are natural allies.
Anna Winter
Executive Director
Save Our Heritage
Concord
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Boston Globe
June 8, 2003
Minutemen were a charade
I never heard any visitors to Minuteman Park say that they weren't coming back because of the airplanes. No, the real issue is the airport, and we should follow the example of Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, who bulldozed the runway at Meigs Field in the dark of night. Just turn Michael Dukakis loose in a tank, and he can blow up Hanscom Field, thus securing the economic boom in Manchester, N.H. But get rid of the Minutemen costumes. You don't need them for a charade.
Joe Gibbons
President , North Shore Aero Club
Topsfield
This story ran on page H12 of the Boston Globe on 6/8/2003.
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Boston Sunday Globe
June 8, 2003
Can we have it all and not sacrifice?
The seven deadly sins are wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
Last summer the church that I serve here in Concord generously agreed to build a screened-in porch for the parsonage I call home. So now on most spring and summer days I am out back on the porch, reading theology, writing sermons, and listening to the sounds of suburbia.
One of those sounds is the high-pitched whine of jet planes taking off from and landing at nearby Hanscom Airfield. These are not the most soothing of sounds and yet I accept it as a part of living here. That's right, not everyone in Concord is against the expansion in the number of flights at the Hanscom Airport (''Airport foes deploy the Minute Man, May 30, Page A1). In fact I fully support increasing the number of flights to and from Hanscom as a part of an overall Massport transportation strategy for Eastern Massachusetts.
I favor this, not because I love the sound of jets overhead or increased local traffic. I favor it because I, like so many Bay Staters, love cheap airplane travel. I love that my air travel options have increased incredibly over the past few years, largely because airlines have been able to greatly expand the number of flights they offer, and the places they fly in and out of, including Hanscom Field
The opposition here in Concord and other surrounding towns is about the phenomenon known as NIMBY (Not in My Backyard), and also deeper cultural truths as well. Far too often we suburbanites want to enjoy things like cheap air travel, but are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary for it to happen.
We want to be able to fly anywhere, anytime, at a very low price, but then insist that our neighbors in East Boston carry all the natural burdens that accompany more takeoffs and landings. That's the part of the argument that's been lost in the false debate over the supposed loss of the pristine nature of Minuteman National Park.
This have-our-cake-and-eat-it-too attitude pervades lots of issues. We want cellphones, but not the towers needed to make those phones work. Build them in another town. We want lower income taxes but then also want the state to provide cheap tuition at UMass for our kids and nursing home subsidies for our aging parents. Tax someone else.
We want a clean environment but then drive around in our $40,000 polluting, gas-guzzling SUVs in record numbers. Isn't it too bad about the environment? We say we want racial justice but then live in economically segregated suburbs such as Concord, where the average house now costs almost half a million dollars.
Students of the American Revolution know that a true Minuteman was willing to make the sacrifices necessary to fight for freedom. But when he and other patriotic neighbors called for freedom, they didn't expect someone else, somewhere else, to shoulder the burden. True freedom is about making life choices and then taking full responsibility for those choices. Yet ours has become a country where we want it all, but expect someone else, anyone else, to do it for us.
Politicians feed off this self-centered civic frenzy. They were lined up like good soldiers at the recent Minuteman National Park protest. But vote for increased taxes? Advocate that suburbanites and city-dwellers equally share the noise of airplanes? Not a chance. Our leaders are so afraid of not being reelected, they cower when it comes to making tough choices. They pander to us citizens and we eat it up, buying into the myth that we can have it all, and not sacrifice anything.
So I'll gladly accept the whine of jet airplanes here in suburbia. It is the small price I pay for being free, making choices and taking responsibility.
Rev. John F. Hudson
Concord
The writer is pastor of West Concord Union Church.
This story ran on page H12 of the Boston Globe on 6/8/2003.
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Boston Globe
June 9, 2003
Cute, cynical stories about Concord
Twice in five days, the Globe sent reporters to Concord, for the bicentennial party for Ralph Waldo Emerson and the naming of Minute Man National Historical Park as an endangered site by a national preservation organization. Each missed the story as they engaged in cute cynicism and verbal slaps at Concord's perceived pretensions. They appeared to be written for the newsroom. The result was superficial stories that did a disservice -- not to Concord, which can take it, but to the Globe's reputation for thorough, fair coverage.
Donovan Slack's account of the Emerson celebration offended the most (''Meditating on a Transcendentalist,'' City & Region, May 26). Five brilliant, heartfelt appraisals of Emerson were offered at a church in the morning and at the Emerson House that afternoon. Slack largely ignored these and did most of her reporting in a Brigham's restaurant and at North Bridge, where she interviewed a tourist. Perhaps, with a deadline, she felt she could not attend the Emerson garden party from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. She reported that a woman who grew up in Concord and who was in fourth grade with Raymond Emerson, the only direct descendant to live in Concord, knew nothing more about Ralph Waldo Emerson than that a house in town is named after him.
The May 30 story by Joanna Weiss about Minuteman National Historical Park was better (''Airport foes deploy the Minute Man,'' Page A1). But it also had a tone of urban cynicism, mocking the crowd for celebrating the park's designation as an endangered site. It implied callous showmanship by the opponents of commercial air traffic at Hanscom Airport. Did she expect people to cry at the sudden realization that no, say it's not so, their beloved park was being degraded? It was appropriate to cheer and welcome a national organization whose designation aided their efforts to preserve the integrity of the park.
The reporter treated the intrusive roar of planes and jets as a stage effect for the celebration. Would that it were so. Had she come the day before, or the day after, she would have heard the same and more. Would it be possible to take seriously, for one day, that the 598 flights per day at Hanscom cited by historian David McCullough do create visual and aural pollution? This does not invalidate the legitimate concerns of area residents about a new runway at Logan Airport.
Richard Higgins
Concord
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 6/9/2003.
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