…getting down to the finishing touches on the interior of this project. The counter-tops have been installed and the sinks are ready for the finished plumbing and fixtures.
It’s been another warm week here, but certainly a lot cooler than in other parts of the country…
I read a good article on the precious metals mining issue recently.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/julaug12/nonferrous.html
I thought it was nicely written. I have not read much in the way of objective information on this issue, (and I am not sure this one is “objective”, nothing ever is, but I felt it was more informative than most). Most pro mining things I see I would put in the category of propaganda put out by the mining companies themselves. The other side responds with an understandable fervor.
This is a huge divisive issue in the community right now and it has become a hard thing to discuss. Like most controversial issues, I know a lot of very smart people with very differing viewpoints. In the end, I really have only found a couple who are totally against the mining itself, (and they are the type who just take the opposite side for the sake of the “fun” of the conflict), most are just good and smart folks who are just expressing a concern for the environment and they are a bit unfairly labeled “anti-mining” by the local “pro-mining” thinkers….
Like so many things, I think we all really want the same thing… In this case, I’m sure that is true of the locals here. I can certainly understand the concerns of a guy who has made his livelihood and life running a wilderness based business just down stream from where the proposed mining will take place and I can certainly understand the people who grew up here and saw the prosperous days of the mining industry and would like to see that again…
Hopefully in the end the Environmental protection and pollution control organizations and their permitting processes will do their jobs and things will be OK.
…I remember sitting on a plane once at the Minneapolis Airport with the family when the kids were young and the flight was delayed because of a terrible thunderstorm… Four young kids on a plane for over three hours knowing that we had a 3 hour flight ahead of us… I remember there was one guy who kept expressing his frustration to the flight attendants. We could see other planes moving around and he was very vocal about “why are still just sitting here?” …I remember thinking that there are a handful of people who really know what is going on… we don’t. In my opinion, I would really rather wait there all night in this plane than to take off before it is safe…
Sometimes some of the local conversation reminds me of that guy on the plane who wanted so badly to get off the ground. Patience is not generally one of my strong points, but when the stakes are high I would say, take whatever time is required to make sure things are going to go ahead smoothly…
…on the other hand, maybe I am just avoiding the issue… I am not one of the smart ones, I know that for sure…