Ready to fight but not finding battlefield

At the hearing regarding power poles in Marpi, the opposition came prepared. They made articulate, well-reasoned, thoughtful statements and were armed with statistics and figures.

They were ready for a fight but unfortunately couldn’t find the battlefield. The opposition insisted the issue was using $2 million to build unsightly, above-ground power poles to supply power to the cemetery. Although the first speaker said she was opposed to the poles, she was the only one in that camp to correctly state the issue, and then unknowingly made the case for their instillation.

This had nothing to do with power going to a cemetery but the opponents of the poles just don’t seem to get it. The veterans cemetery next to it will not hook up and does not need it. The cemetery on Savanna Road had no power. There are not typically power poles or lights in any cemetery.

The opponents had statistics on tourism and eco-tourism, statements from experts within the tourist industry on the negative impact of this project, legal information on how to get more federal money for the alternative energy or underground cables, statements from local groups who enjoy the use of Marpi as it is the suggestions on getting power from alternative sources.

But opponents of the project failed to address the real issue; only the supporters of the project did that. The different groups were talking about two different things. Although the stated project will need millions of dollars to light up a cemetery, the supporters never said a word about the cemetery and its need to be visited not only during day when there is light but also in the middle of the night (light pollution and the soon-to-be inability of locals and tourists alike to go to Banzai and enjoy the stars and moon on a clear night was not discussed.) The real reason for the project is to get power is to get to a few family farms. That’s it. (Of course what not even the supporters talked about was that this sets up further development.) They went on to make the point, and make it clearly, they are registered voters and to deny them their power poles is having outsiders tell them they can’t have CUC power.

The Commonwealth’s only industry, tourism, and the general welfare of the thousands of residents here, indigenous and not, is of no concern. The big picture so to speak is, well, there is no big picture. No forest, just trees. It seems only the opposition was unaware that the notion of power to a small cemetery that has a generator and is doing fine and could be further supplied by federally funded windmills and solar panels, is all just a rouse. They actually seemed to be naïve enough not to know this is a sham, bogus, false, feigned, fictitious, fraudulent, make believe, phony, pretend, simulated, and untrue. Those who support the project are fully aware of this and seem content to have again duped others. The only point the opponents of this project actually made, if any, was that when the Department of Interior finds out it was misinformed as to how money was used try not to be shocked, as some people always seem to be, that there are consequences.