To the editor:

It is never truly problematic to take time to comprehend the significance of things, the meaning of occurrences.

I see no reason why taxpayers should, in effect, be forced to co-finance a business for which they will get nothing in return but higher taxes and less peace of mind.

Should our government’s partnership with Big Woods and Hard Truth Distillery continue to be successful, despite the opposition, these things will come to pass.

The partnership will bring more business here, and people; thus, it will be necessary to raise taxes to pay for the infrastructure needed to accommodate them.

We will have less peace of mind as traffic and crime rates swell, and by the certain knowledge that we will allow more booze to be poured into a population already saturated with it, a population already a bit too insane — all for the profit of a few.

We know that the owners of these companies have been lobbying our government for years to support their stock-in-trade. This new lobby for the expansion of their business has been in the works for some time. There was a coordinated effort to bring it about that was done mostly under the table, due to the opposition that key supporters anticipated.

This is the same opposition the lobby drew a few years ago when our government (which apparently hasn’t changed much since then) attempted to push the Stellar designation through with little information disseminated to the community/public.

Our opposition to the success of this lobby should be considered with more time to do so, and should it be successful, from it will come the possibility of a stronger, tighter knit community and therefore fearless of threats to it.

Think about what having a community means and what it can do for you and your family — what having one can do for us all.

I believe that the value of a community is severely underestimated in our country. To contemplate why so many have been destroyed is worth doing.

Community is underestimated. It should not be underestimated by our government.

John Douglas, Nashville

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