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Speak for self, not others

Shirley resident does not want to painted with same brush

Some of the residents of Shirley are back to old tricks; speaking presumptuously for everyone else in the area.

Take for instance Diane Dieters letter declaring that “the residents of Shirley choose to live in Shirley because of the quiet.”

First of all, I personally would like less exclusion, less repressions, and more excitement, more access, more activity, more “life” in the area. I loved here because my two-and-a-half acre lot, located a two minute walk from the beach cost me $18,500 20 years ago. I did not move here for the “quiet.”

Furthermore, to say Shirley residents (the ones who frequent the firehall meetings) are quiet, is quite literally to unhinge the meaning of the word “quiet.”

I don’t know about recently, but in the near past, the firehall was the site of a great deal of hollering and yelling and foot stomping, and name calling, and almost to the point of fisticuffs, So, if Diane Dieter calls that quiet, so be it.

Ms. Dieter is right on one point, the poor condition of West Coast Road. Because of the depressed economy in the area — “the economic silence.”

Since I am the only “real” environmentalist in the whole place, and not just an environmentalist of convenience, and do not even own a “Gas to CO2” ton of vehicle, biking on that hell hole of a road from Shirley to Sooke once a week to go grocery shopping, keeps me fit, and on the alert, and it “saves the environment” while living dangerously.

I take pride in being a non-hypocrite environmentalist, and view all the “so-called” environmentalists in Shirley, with their big house to heat, their biased ideology, and their two cars, as finger-pointing pretenders.

Don’t speak for “me in Shirley” ms. Dieter. I don’t want anything to do with your loud kind of quiet, and your fake environmentalism. But, you’re right about the condition of West Coast Road. I take my life in my hands every week biking into town on it — being a “real” environmentalist.

N.E. MacNab

Shirley