Archive: Opinions

Last week, Walaa Maharem-Horan complained on her Facebook page that a community leader was not open enough to her input on how the town should grow because she hadn't lived here long enough. That may be a valid complaint or not as I was not there, but I found Deborah Dawson's response to the complaint shocking and wholly inappropriate. Dawson stated it wasn't elitism that caused some people not to embrace growth and new Lansing residents, but that it was "Old Lansing, which is white farm families who have been here for generations," who were resistant to change.

If Ms. Dawson built a new house in our neighborhood we would likely deliver homemade bread, hot from the oven, as we have for others and had a conversation. If this is Ms. Dawson's view of the families who founded Lansing and Ms. Maharem-Horan agrees with her, I don't see how they can represent the town or village with a slogan 'Working for all of Lansing.'

Instead of complaints about how terrible the residents of 'old Lansing' are, maybe come out and say hi and start a conversation. I came in 1976 after completing Cornell, went out and met my neighbors and got involved with the school site teams and 1995 comp plan. Did you come out for the Lansing celebration of 200 years of agriculture at Town Hall Oct 7? The Open Farm Tour in August? What kind of public service comes from profiling a group that has served the town for generations, built the economy here, continues to raise their families here.

These candidates say they want new ideas for the town, but lack experience to know what will work, is legal, is under the town's purview versus the state's, and what price is attached to these changes. It should be pointed out, the 'white farm families' are not all white. We share the common bond of love of the earth and better have best practices for our green thumbs and take great care of our animals to survive. We farmers pay a large tax bill and even with agriculture based assessment get $.70 in services for each dollar paid while the residential tax payer gets more than a dollar and a half in services. We like lean, responsible, government. It's not to say new ideas aren't welcome, but those ideas will be much better tempered with Lansing experience and Lansing Concerns instead of contacts and knowledge of Ithaca.

Who formed the core working group when the Lansing Library started? Farm families. Who does the chicken BBQs for local charities? Farm families. Town boards, Planning boards, school boards and Church boards all have and have volunteers from this group.

Farmers are proud of what we do, have done, and what Lansing farms and rural kids are doing in the world. Lansing family and farm ethic and Lansing schools produce winning kids. It's not the only way to raise successful kids but it is impressive. We farmers are not elitist, but we do work in a real world. That's the dirt. Please vote Mike Sigler, Doug Dake and Robert Cree for Lansing.

Lin Davidson
Lansing, NY
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