Dear David,
The Citizens Who Proclaim they want to preserve Wainscott have shown us again and again what seems to be an extreme sense of narcissistic entitlement and astonishing class privilege, as they seem to attempt to acquire Wainscott as an extension of their property holdings. One sad example is the recently drawn boundaries limiting who can vote against/for incorporation in ways that wind up disenfranchising many of our neighbors. These voting rights exclusions pit neighbor against neighbor.
Some who live in the hamlet will be able to vote, while their neighbors who pay local Wainscott taxes and have lived here for years, right across the street, will be denied their democratic rights to decide their fate. And it is these neighbors of yours and mine who most deserve to vote as they stand to lose the most — for instance, free access to the beach that we have held in common and with great happiness for hundreds of years. Let’s come together as citizens of this hamlet and reject this immoral, undemocratic grab for power and demand that these self-serving, cynical tactics stop.
You’ll have the additional selfish satisfaction of saving yourself a lot of headaches in raised taxes that would foot the bill for multimillion-dollar legal challenges many proponents of incorporation seem determined to pursue no matter what. It’s an ignoble maneuver to shift the costs of wealthy individuals’ legal positions onto the entirety of the citizenry, and that should tell you something.
Remember what Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” If it should ever come to a vote, respect (if you can’t love) your neighbor as you do yourself, and reject the divisive village incorporation.
Sincerely,
DAVID DOTY
Wainscott, NY