Here’s something we all can agree on: we live in a beautiful place, largely free of dissension and stress. The world over the bridge is an increasingly scary place, full of angst, tension, and turmoil. Not here.
But wait: a recent edition of this paper (Feb. 8, 2024) reveals the contrary. Its pages are rife with controversy, ranging from the cause of the tragic death of a right whale to the management of affordable housing. Even something as seemingly minor as the hiring of a shellfish deputy in Wellfleet involves bitter finger-pointing and recriminations. But there are at least two sides to every story.
The most pressing issue facing the Outer Cape, if not the country, is the lack of affordable housing. It is properly termed a crisis. Those who do not recognize it as such are probably insulated from its most immediate effects: the trauma of housing insecurity and the inability of the traumatized to join the labor force at all levels, from dishwashers to town managers.
But those who are not wholeheartedly on the bandwagon do have legitimate concerns, from the undeniable beauty of Truro (“keep Truro rural”) to the small-town-neighborhood nature of Provincetown. There is also the desire that open space and conservation of resources not be sacrificed on the altar of “housing for all.” We are ultimately talking about the character of our shared home. Differences of opinion should be openly and respectfully aired.
Along with housing, there is the need for enhanced infrastructure to serve our communities. Whether it is police stations, fire and EMT services, expanded town government, or DPW facilities, we need to move into the modern age. But these things are expensive, and we have homeowners on the edge of affordable lives: taxes are killing us, they say. We all need to be able to afford to live here. These concerns should be addressed.
Decades before housing and infrastructure became the issues of the day, our fishing community hit the hard reality of regulation. You can still find bumper stickers reading: “National Marine Fisheries: Destroying Fishermen and Their Communities Since 1976.” You do not have to look far to find examples of bureaucratic myopia, nonsensical ordinances, and inconsistent enforcement. My fishermen friends express frustration and outrage about being left out of the process of sustaining our fisheries by “those with degrees but no real knowledge of the ocean.” I know there are efforts by scientists to collaborate, and I find it hard to believe that our agencies would purposely disregard an important component of our economy and culture. But there needs to be more open-minded acknowledgment of the views of those being regulated.
The issue behind the senseless controversy over right whales is the conflating of their plight with the grand hopes for ocean wind turbines as a source of green energy. Poor three-year-old #5120, washed up dead on Martha’s Vineyard, could never have comprehended the storm that her demise has set off. While there was conclusive evidence of entanglement — rope embedded in her tail, which had already been sighted in 2022 — numerous social-media posts linked her death to Vineyard Wind’s operation.
We all bring our own perspectives to the issues that affect our shared existence. You and I may look at the same set of facts and come away with wildly different conclusions. Research has shown that facts are taken in through an emotional filter, and we each have our own. I must afford you respect and consideration and understand that your starting point and outlook — different from mine — are valid, as difficult as that may be.
But the death of #5120 is different. Social-media comments — from individuals and organizations — expressed distrust of official reports and claimed that the photos of the whale taken by NOAA were fake. Anti-wind propagandists like Andrew Joyce imagine conspiracies and deal in hyperbole: he calls wind power “ocean suicide” and Stormy Mayo an “ideologue.”
There are elements of ocean wind power that need to be scrutinized — a process that should be applied to any large environmental alteration — but this scrutiny must take place in an atmosphere of fair-mindedness. “At some point, you have to trust the town administrator,” said Wellfleet’s Rich Waldo. That goes for all our shared enterprises. Oversight is essential — that is the essence of the Fourth Estate — but casting negative aspersions about people’s motives and spreading misinformation are counterproductive.
Most important is that we really listen to each other. We are all in this together.
