Having It Both Ways Is Tough

Recently there's been a lot of discussion about outsiders/protesters getting involved in issues that have an impact on the area near where I live. It's an interesting discussion for a couple of reasons. Seneca Lake, the Finger Lakes Region and Watkins Glen are in fact tourist areas that sell themselves to tourists (outsiders). The sell is obviously for business purposes. Tourists and tourism bring dollars to the area. Many businesses depend on these transactions and the tax revenue also impacts services and reduces pressure on property taxes. But there's another side to the business transaction. Tourists, visitors, customers sometimes come with different perspectives, different values and perhaps new and different ideas. It's really no different then other economic development transactions. Outside companies come to an area with their ideas of quality of life, development, etc. Sometimes welcome, sometimes not.

Ideas from visitors, neighbors or developers can be similar to ones generally held in a community but sometimes they clash. It can be good for everyone, or it can be horrible, but it is a natural process of growth. What attracts tourists to a place - the beauty, the quiet, the ambience, are sometimes lost as more people discover a particular community or region. But every new person brings the potential of new ideas and that's not bad. These people create diversity of thought, talent, cultures and experiences along with their sought after dollars. In the end some of them stay because they're seeking something the area has to offer. As in many communities they will be known as outsiders by natives for 30+ years. Who decides who an outsider is or where the boundaries lie can also be a puzzle. Is someone from Watkins Glen an outsider in the town of Reading or somewhere else on the shores of a lake that has 70 miles of shore line? Is it based on mileage or years spent in a region?

In my view you just can't have it both ways. You can't promote your area as the mecca where everyone should come to spend their dollars and then be upset because these 'outsiders' have different views, looks, values and ideas.

I believe the use of the term outsiders is in itself divisive. Telling people they're not part of your community is the last thing a tourist community should want to do. Somehow there has to be a line of communication built on tolerance and respect that helps people find and build on common beliefs rather then differences.

The current discussion has also identified the old concept of the silent majority vs a vocal minority. Personally I don't think it really leads anywhere. The reality is that discussion also creates some false barriers. It seems what people always want is for their side to become more vocal and it all becomes a circular argument.

The discussion about Methane and LPGas being stored in salt caverns around Seneca Lake should really be more fact based rather then an emotional one about where someone lives. It's a valid discussion for anyone living in or near the area, anyone depending on the lake for water or recreational uses, or for people truly worried about environmental issues. Some people feel they've had that fact based discussion with all of the public officials they can and it has fallen on deaf ears. They are resorting to a form of protest that many dislike but one that has a long history in our country and throughout the world. Non-violent, civil disobedience has always had a role in our society and probably always will. You can dislike it, disagree with it or bemoan it but it has accomplished many things in the past. That's the other thing about not being able to have it both ways - you break the law and you pay the consequences and it doesn't matter if you're an outsider or an insider. People start thinking and discussing and that's the point.