Big River Blues

When a song starts playing in my head, there's usually a reason. This week it's some lines from the song 'Call' on Bill Harley's wonderful CD 'First Bird Call'. In the song, a wistful father, missing his grown kids who have flown the nest, is offering his heartfelt advice. These lines keep coming to me:

Be a fool for God and love, not some worthless dollar.
When you find something's wrong, Stand Up and Holler.

I feel like standing up and hollering myself. Something is wrong with decisions being made by the State of Rhode Island's Big River Management Area, decisions that adversely affect citizens of my town of West Greenwich, and in particular, three good friends and their families.

Engineering studies have already shown that the land acquired years ago for a reservoir is unfit for that purpose. Open space is always welcome, but some just settlement must be made with those families who now live as 'tenants' on the land. It is claimed that the State is losing money managing the area, but how is that so?

I think my friends deserve a real answer to this question, and real solutions need to be forthcoming for both Citizens and State. We should not treat our good people like this. I think people should get their homes and property back, pay town taxes, and resume life like the rest of us.

It may be there are hidden forces and motives at work here, people who want to oust the citizens for their own purposes - perhaps housing or shopping developments. If so, I trust this will all come to light in the end.

But in the meantime, I do feel like standing up and hollering. I am trusting Love will show me the best way to do this, and I am listening.