Letters: Comparing Lockhart, library narratives may prove useful

So every few months we tend to see the same old thing on our sites people with complaints and people complaining about people complaining. So the hippy liberal wants to quote...wait for it... George W. Bush who recently said this:

"Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions."

The truth in this has never been clearer to me then when I watch the situation at the Library with Mr. Elder. I watched the meeting on Aug. 8 remotely. And I heard several citizens with complaints approach the board bringing up numerous issues with response from various town officials, employees etc. (bite your tongue kids this is not a slam piece on the BOS or the town) The BOS explained they are really busy, their employees are really busy and/or they don't know at that time and need to research it and they know you have emailed x amount of times and gone to the town hall x amount of times etc. and they are trying but they are busy. OK we are all busy I get it. But here is the problem:

It doesn't seem like others are being given the same opportunity so let's look at an example of why we disagree:

• Let me assume the Worst about Mr. Gray, Tom tried to keep the contamination at Lockhart a secret, refused to let anyone know about and magically is a hero with NH Solar Garden? WTF Tom?! You couldn't loop us in? Why the big secret? This was your idea? It didn't have anything to do with our calls to DES etc.?
• Now let me assume the Best about Mr. Gray, Tom was working on Lockhart but wasn't at the top of the list saw discussion online about all the concerns around Lockhart and received citizen outreach asking about the status of grants. So he decided to close the field to protect the town until a solution was reached. He didn't want to talk about the solar garden unless it was actually able to move forward. Tom did a lot of good for the town with this.

*I have no idea what Tom was thinking or his motivations but this is a great example as to how I can judge him by a bad moment or by his best intentions.

The same goes for the situation with Les Elder. I watched the video and the board seemed pretty livid with Mr. Elder (Laurie did mention his name so we know who they were referencing when they said no names). Someone else put his name and address on a check that was written to the library and he logged it and deposited it in the Library account. Mind you the RSA's on building maintenance on town owned library building are muddy at best, but aside from that I can't see any poor intent based on these facts. But Mr. Elder seems to be being judged on a poor moment when it would probably be more pertinent to look at his best intentions.

I am certainly not immune to this and I don't think any of us are. Let's think about people complaining on OMH (Our Milton Home) site. Most people don't complain to trash the town and we all can phrase things poorly or aggressively. So let's judge people with their best intentions in mind so we can forge a better path of working together. I know it's not a perfect system; sometimes people need to vent and we can forgive them for that.

And BOS, this is on you more than us. As citizens we must question your intentions and we (or at least I) are sorry about this, but the human condition is what it is. And as our elected officials you hold significantly more power than us and yes we can all protest at election time but to what end? Because I choose to believe you are operating with the best of intentions and now just need to learn how to show us.

- Kristen Wilson,

Milton