Living in God's country

You know, I never thought much about moving to the mountains as a child. I remember the long rides up, passing cows and horses, nice homes and dilapidated ones. My parents would happily chat on about what they would do once we got to "God's Country".

Now, granted, much of my trepidation of coming to the heavenly kingdom had much to do with the fact that, since most prisoners found God in prison,where he apparently chose to reside in a 4x4 cell with toughened inmates, I wasn't sure what I would be in for in his "entire country". What would God's inmates look like in his country?

When my eventual forced transplantation took place, I thought of this place less and less of God's country, and more of just a mountain retreat. There were quirky neighbors, and you couldn't run out for milk late at night if you ran out, and the raccoons would ALWAYS try to abscond with your garbage, but it beat city living, right? You said hi to your neighbors, and you got along, and if you didn't you just ignored each other. You knew at least one person who owned a horse, or had chickens, and you always got fresh eggs if you wanted them.

Then something weird happened. Well ,something awful happened first. September 11 2001 marked the beginning of the end of the way we all lived. Not just here, but nationally. Internationally even. We didn't feel so safe anymore, and right before our eyes our little town changed.
First, panicked people from the city came up in droves, buying up all the real estate that they could. Prices went out of control. However, that did not discourage the escapees, and the mass exodus continued.

Changes were happening quickly and most seemed out of our control. Those of us who transplanted here nearly 30 years ago, adapted to the way of life up here, we didn't come running in like gang busters, we just changed to fit in. But there was a different kind of transplanted type that was coming now. People from far and wide made Shandaken their home, having either been kicked out of where they came from, or escaped for other reasons, like they couldn't hack it anywhere else, because as you know, all forms of dysfunction are encouraged here. Matter of fact, Shandaken has it's own motto, challenging the one from Ellis Island.

"Give us your medicated and confused, your psychotic and hungry, unwilling to work, and we will comfort and provide for them."

Droves of whiners and thieves, takers and snarky pricks, showed up, planted their asses firmly into the town, and have upset the apple cart ever since. They wanted to escape from 'whatever' yet, brought everything they were running from, with them. Then, slowly they began to dictate the way families (who lived here for generations), would now live. The NIMBY crowd had arrived. On a side note, I also blame them for the new breed of aggressive jersey bear that replaced our mildly annoying raccoons,as the garbage pirates.

The NIMBY (or, NIMBOSYLS/NIMBOSYLIAN) crowd doesn't like change. Unless they initiate it, of course. They got their piece of the pie, but now they want to stop everyone else from enjoying the very things they get to. NO development, and if you want a job, go to Kingston. No cell service, it might cause their kid's hamster to grow an ear on it's ass. Sexual predators and hardened criminals find a haven here, as the astonishing lack of communication, on every level, is virtually non existent, and the slickest criminals know that is the best place to reside. Backed by NIMBOSYL activists, offenders have more rights to privacy than the innocent people the NIMBOSYLIAN have decided to harass.

So, kiddies, is this what you want for your town? Do you want this shit to continue? Vote for Pete and Snoris (ha ha, get it?) if you crave this particular way of life. If you want your neighbor to have control over every decision you make about your yard landscaping. If you want your local town government to be more concerned with the possible proliferation of farm stands and not give two shits about the possible start up of porn shops and tit-tay bars (most likely because they will benefit from them).

Use your noodles, my peeps. And USE YOUR WORDS! Tell your friends. Oooo! Tell your friends that Pete is opening a tit-tay bar, he will either lose big, or win bigger! No, tell them Mary Herrmann will be doing the pole dancing... that will lose him the election FAST!!!

Just a thought

-Helena