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‘No’ is Not the Answer

This past four years in Clinton has been an empowering adventure for us. We bought an old empty house and we built, painted, planted, roofed, and on and on, buying all we needed locally. I joined town committees and volunteered at two beautiful local gardens where I’ve met people who work hard to improve this community. I helped to plan, pass, and fundraise for the new Clinton Green/Blueway. I thought we had found the place we would settle and a community of people whom we respected and wanted to live among.

This referendum season has changed my mind. Clinton is a stunningly beautiful place with a great deal of unrealized potential, but as long as the population refuses to support its government, library, police, or its schools, it is destined to have empty shops, a low tax base, and a well-deserved inferiority complex. Nothing thrives without a certain amount of investment—not a garden, or a child, or a home, or a community.

Our neighbors have thrived, but we haven’t. Our neighbors have planners and town engineers, but we don’t. Our neighbors have new businesses, and we have signs in front of shops that have closed.

We will not improve this town by continuing to go backward. We can not improve our future by shorting our infrastructure, overcrowding our classrooms, or closing our library. “No” is not the answer for people who are interested in a strong future for Clinton.

Carrie Allen

Clinton