Yes, in our area we have several land trust groups that are very active in acquiring former farmland for conservation areas. The acreage that is the site of the future retail megadevelopment was not pristine enough to be set aside for open space. However, I am sure that there are other community needs that might have been addressed with it, such as affordable housing, retirement housing, and mixed uses including retail. And - certainly - sidewalks!

The real problem in my neck of the woods is the need for a political sea change to occur on a local level. The change is starting to happen, but not (I don't believe) because people are opening their eyes and changing their minds, as they are on national matters such as the Bush administration's conduct, the War on Iraq, Katrina response, etc. Rather, the political balance is shifting in my area because, quite simply, more Democrats are moving and registering to vote here.

But there is an entrenched parochial mindset among many locals that is very distrustful of planning efforts, and believes that the free market (in the form of developers and their proposals) knows best. In the small town that happens to be the location of the mega-development, planning officials appear to be very skeptical of community planning efforts. There is no comprehensive plan and no zoning in the town whatsoever. (It's crazy. The other day I saw a young boy returning home from school make his way through a busy gas station. Where was he going? The poor little thing - his house was right in back!) To too many "planners" here, planning efforts are tantamount to heavy-handed Soviet style "plans" and may have "unintended consequences." (How can one predict the future, laments a prominent planning official here.) A large turnout of orderly and well-spoken community residents at a public meeting is viewed as tantamount to an undisciplined rabble with pitchforks and torches!

I'm not seeing the entrenched set changing their minds on their "core beliefs." Which makes me wonder how real the "political sea change" is. Will it trickle down to a community level? The rank-and-file may vote differently in 11/08 in the national races. But will they vote a different ticket in local races? And that's where "the base" resides, doesn't it? In small localities.

My hope, though, rests in the new generation that's coming up. They don't necessarily agree with their parents, and they care about their communities, and planet earth, and they don't want to go to war. I think their minds can be changed, and the sea change take hold.

I know it's not the days of "The Good Earth," by Pearl S. Buck.

IntrovertGirl, if you get face to 'face to face' with your partner, ever again, and if at all possible, maybe you 'cancan' have a dozen or more children to humanity some more hope? That little baby swimming in your belly, is about to have a fine lovable mommy.

Pay total attention to the one who comes to the 'good earth' via you 'guys' in the 21st century, to hopefully, salvage us wayward adults. The political and social upheavals we face, as a society, need parents who love the Earth. I use to say, "Put a hoe in your children's hands to prevent a nuclear holocaust." I still say that.

The dogwood blossoms are quietly barking. The yuck film feeling on the grime tongue goes away when you drink ginger beer. It can become a sweet hot tea, if you heat the ginger up. If the fly's or fruit ants crowd around the tea cup, don't swat them dead or aggressively smack them, angrily. Shoo 'um elsewhere.

Don't be fixing' to smash and cook pest-bugs on the barbecue grill. Lemon balm tea, also does soothe a upset tummy. If the plant's leaves are pinched into a paste, the lemon-balm-oil keeps pesky insects and nocturnal bats away from your eardrums. Honest.

If there was a honest law firm some place, I'd ask to file a congressional bill-law-suit, which outlawed those (fatalities) permanent marriages. A introvert, imho, is a Wagner suite of a wow-wow, a humble one, and a one who has to conceal her inner beauty and innate feminine powers?

Make smashed potatoes or think: Walk down a wedding aisle or simmer some Succotash with lots of creamy butter? Y'all, IntrovertGirl, i'sa my kinda lovable gal? Now, I'm not wish any jealousy, tell your partner to love the 'dickens' out of you. I am giving him a complement, and I'm tired of fight-in' in the Salon about corn-fed ladies I respect-in'.

Off topic: I picked the first pic-kin's of rhubarb for blueberry puree on vanilla ice cream. Wow, if I could offer you and your partner (Glenn and friends too) some rhubarb blueberry paste, with raw honey for dessert...It be a 'gone with the wind' evening.

You, tell yer partner, I am not tacky. People like you liberals remind me of a sweet sugary 'pre-revolutionary...days, and ah, oh, bow bashfully... a lover.

I best not get into some hopeful historical signs, today. Yes, but do Love each other, (courtiers) and drink lots of ginger beer, okay.

You sure you are a introvert? Wow! I realize this ain't a tacky 'chat' room parlor. But you can sure enough fool some of the blogger's some of the day's, but bebop-o, does sure look stupid when I goes 'round and 'round on a Merry Go 'Round, neck-in' too...(!) tease, o mama, ME....Merci.

...the last time the times they were a changin' all that was necessary to stop the change was four assassinations and two official campus massacres. I don't doubt that such long knives will be unsheathed again.

A pity Secretary Marshall couldn't have had a real wasteland to work with here in the U.S., rather than the intellectual one he and others actually had to face.

If he'd been so lucky, who knows...we might today have been as well off as France or Germany. (Yes, I know they both have their problems, but imperial wars, intelligent design, and no health care aren't among them.)