Which came first: The revolution or the oppression? Maybe the real question is: When was there time for enlightenment? Evil recycles. Everything made of evil recycles. And if you toss it in a landfill — never build there.
“Old MacDollar had a Farm” – what very few people realize is that the non-farming population in New York State is living under Agricultural Law. What’s “Agricultural Law”? Think of the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Robin Hood movies. It’s the lock-step power and influence of rich Agricultural interests, along with the lack of money and political power of the poor non-farming rural residents; that have resulted in an overwhelming bi-partisan support for “farms.” Rural areas now have “Ag Ghettos” – with the same drugs, crime, and hopelessness as their urban counterparts — but nobody knows they exist. What do you know about what goes on in rural America? It’s a story that nobody has the courage to report.
Fish Skimming begins in the impaired waters where Noodling goes belly up. It a sport and a living [well, some of it is] laboratory in the same rural setting. Under Agricultural Law: what’s a “nutrient” when spread on a farmer’s field; and spreading into the waterways – is only “toxic waste” when it’s spilled on urban streets – so it’s safe for rural children if they stay clear of the meth labs.
Fish Skimming is to the “Old Swimming Hole”; what Xbox is to Howdy Doody. “Kowabunga.”
Hopscotch, like sorrow, is a repetitive action – part memory and part rhythm – fading into the background of life. Is anger urban; and sorrow rural? I don’t know.
In Tompkins County; when sacrifices have to be made: they don’t ask what? – They ask who? And the county’s rural residents are at the top of the list. We are the stumbling block to Cornell’s completely homogenized and conforming community vision – and their Legislature is always removing our services and increasing our taxes. How can they do this? Why don’t you ask the 30,000 students that give them that power – they’re our future.
It’s all stonewalling and pushback when rural residents try to implement traffic control measures. The same County that enforces a maximum speed limit of 30 mph on all roads traveling through the City of Ithaca; refuses to post any limits in their County-controlled rural roads. And in spite of the accidents and entreaties of residents: they have refused to patrol these roads – encouraging an ever-increasing flood of reckless workers, students, and commercial vehicles who know they’ll never get a ticket. Even with documented evidence of the most blatant disregard of law and human life – the have never once acknowledged that there is a problem. They sit there like stone-faced judges in a wall of indifference. They covet our land — without us. Urban Colonialism.
Tompkins County planners don’t counsel – they conspire.
We no longer create our communities by living in them – we just inhabit the communities our government creates.
They do all the planning. They have all the planners. They have all the power. They have all the cards.
Folks in rural areas don’t live under the same laws as other people – or have the same worth.
But, what would you know about it. And why don’t you?
Exposing misconduct, corruption, and cronyism in Tompkins County is not just digging into the past – it’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
“Tompkins County and Tammany Hall” documented only small piece of the overarching policies and actions that dominate and control the lives of the county’s rural residents – and includes nothing that has occurred since its publication.
An unfinished and unpublished companion piece to the “Truck Route” chapter [Road Weary] has even more jaw-dropping disclosures of the actions of local and County authorities; and their ongoing displacement and oppression of the rural community – actions that only those who feel beyond the reach of social justice and legal oversight would commit.
I have sent copies of the book to many people who, I thought, would be open to change – without even getting an acknowledgement – and bringing readers up to date would do nothing to change the situation – it would only increase the “body count.”
It’s hopeless – but I have a plan – as my cousin used to say: “Don’t force it; get a bigger hammer.”
![“The World According to Doctrine” — Form Based Code Cornell [formerly Lansing] NY](https://i0.wp.com/www.ruraltompkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/9982_Form-Based-Code-Living-Lansing_FLAT.jpg?resize=660%2C912&ssl=1)
Form Based Codes are a simplified form; for a simplified government: themselves. Form Based Codes bring zoning into line with modern authoritative thinking: 100% public comments – 0% meaningful participation.
Form Based Codes are the perfect tool for Urban Colonialism: the preservation of urban spaces – and the resettlement and destruction of the rural community. A “streamlined” tool for taking.
“The real tragedy of these small enclaves of marginality and poverty is that people are playing a game of life that has been structured in such a way that they are required to play but prevented from winning.” — Janet Fitchen, “Poverty in Rural America”
In rural New York; No one can hear you scream.