Dear Editor,
When you ask the public to keep an open mind about the Grain Belt Express, please consider the differences between the Interstate road system and railroads as compared to a privately owned transmission line, the formers bring Kansans a benefit and allows Kansas to use them for their own purposes. The latter’s primary intended goal is to fatten the wallets of private investors, a private corporation and a select few landowners (some of whom are also corporations). Eminent domain will be used to take land, destroy natural resources and hinder many landowners’ use of the land without compensation for it or the resulting loss in property value. If this project were really necessary for the public good, private profit should not be part of the equation. There should be no private gain from eminent domain.
The KCC has sold out Kansans, they asked to hear the concerns of those impacted and the public, dismissed the more than 97% opposition simply as “numbers”, then gave special attention to the less than 3% in support. Their actions were and are nothing but a charade. Governor Brownback has been quiet as a mouse on the subject, refusing to respond to landowners, small farmers and private business owners he touts as the backbone of the Kansas.
Do you own property that will be impacted by the project? Only if you have something to lose do you have standing to ask others to keep an open mind.
Would you subject your family to the threat of electromagnetic fields? Would you allow your livelihood and your family’s well-being be put in jeopardy?
Would you sit idly by and let the value of your property be stolen away?
I challenge you to put your money where your mouth is. If you think you would be so willing to give up what you have worked for, saved for and cared for, then perhaps you’ll write checks to each impacted property owner as partial compensation for their loss. Sound unreasonable? Then maybe you understand how the property owners feel. The difference is they aren’t being asked, they are being told, and their expense will be far greater and everlasting.
Matthew Stallbaumer
Topeka