Editor, The News:
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk and little sense in little ol’ Maple Ridge.
Someone said, ‘Ya can’t farm there, it ain’t got no drainage’.
Another concerned citizen said, ‘Who the heck would want to have a farm messin’ up all this here fine residential sprawl?’
It seems some want nothing but the finest for our small town, while others demand that all that dirty old farmland should be replaced with nice, hot, asphalt and cold, dead, concrete, so we can shop more frequently for cheaper crap.
Lord knows, everybody needs more cheap crap.
And just think of the handful of slave-wage jobs it could provide for those lucky few.
Of course, those who work there couldn’t possibly afford to shop anywhere else, because they couldn’t afford wheels anymore.
That reminds me of something. Way back when the Model T was ubiquitous, Henry Ford drew a lot of attention because he was paying his factory workers much higher wages than his competitors. When asked about it, he replied something like this; ‘I want all my employees to be able to afford my cars.’
I guess someone took that good idea and perverted it. Now, I don’t care for such people or the shell games they bring to town, but I do care about the finite, farmland in Maple Ridge. In this age of global warming, talk of ecological concerns and eating local, it’s surprising how quickly people are willing to sell out the valuable lands for a bag of junk from China that some rich American is selling.
Farmland left fallow has far more potential value for our community than the blight of another pimped out and paved over piece of farmland.
Think about it.
Grant Baker
Maple Ridge