Coming out of winter hibernation!

Yesterday was 68 degrees, and of course it snowed all morning today, the day before spring!  Sort of a microcosm of our struggle to keep the beaches available to all of us for recreation–one day it’s warm and beautiful, and the next day a handful of homeowners remind us of how fragile things really are.

I heard a comment the other day that really reminded me of why Save-Our-Beaches is in this fight to simply keep the status quo.  We support our community’s heritage, life as we’ve all known it here at Goose Rocks, but also all other beaches in Maine and beyond that will be affected by this lawsuit.  One of our most gentle, thoughtful members was speaking with someone who supports the homeowners’ fight to take Goose Rocks private.  That someone tried to convince our supporter that the Town was the initiator of all this awful, expensive mess, and that it was the Town that had sued the property owners.

Folks, people remember what and how they want to, in order to keep their conscience clear as they sue for the ability to kick you, or your father, or son, or daughter-in-law, off of the beach.  We MUST continue to remind the community, and visitors, of how all of this came to be, and that we all have a responsibility to fight to keep something precious as a walk for an early morning sunrise.

To briefly summarize, when the Town was informed that a small portion of the oceanfront homeowners were organizing and threatening to sue unless demands were met, Larry Mead and his team met with their lawyer to determine their issues and head off any litigation, in the summer of 2009.  The demands turned out to be ridiculously prohibitive and thankfully the Town did not give in to the threat.

In the silent of the quiet season, late fall, thinking that most of us would be dormant or away, the small number of oceanfront homeowners sued the Town, NOT the other way around!  Thus, the Town and all of us that love the beach and want continued access and recreational use of the beach sand as we’ve had for a century, are known as Defendants!  The Plaintiffs, or suers as I like to think of them,  want to be able to pick and choose who enjoys the beach in front of their house.

If they win, and they don’t like the color of your bathing suit, they can make you leave.  If they chat with you and don’t like your political views, they can make you leave.  If they don’t like the country you are from, they can make you leave.  If they don’t like children, they can make you leave.  Your family is having a birthday celebration for your grandmother, they can make you leave.

Folks, we see recreational use of the beach for maybe four months of the year, and there is plenty of room, guaranteed by finite numbers of parking spaces, and we have traditionally been tremendously respectful of the beach.  Yet a few people, led by some homeowners that might have five people a year sit all the way down at their end of the beach, want to enforce archaic deed language that was written in 1647 before beach recreation was a notion.

Even then, our forefathers recognized that the beach and ocean were unique, and wrote into that old language three exceptions, fishing, fowling and navigation that appreciated and guaranteed to all citizens the right to enjoy the beach in the manner of the times.  Recreation would have been included had that generation invented the Frisbee.

So come out of hibernation, as we are!  It is difficult to have momentum when so much is in the hands of lawyers, but we can remind the community of how selfish these few people are and help the Town fight this in the courts for all of us.

Come to the three meetings we will have this spring, and listen to the latest updates.  If you believe other than what we cover here, come speak up and defend the lawsuit and share with us your justification!  Otherwise we will judge you by your actions, and blame the cost and anxiety on your deeds.

There are some who try and rewrite history to suit themselves, and to make them feel better about themselves.  Some say that our group divides the community as it fights this fight.  What divides a community more, suing one’s own Town and community, or fighting to keep a beautiful, unique treasure in the hands of all human beings, regardless of race, creed, color, or politics?  If they win this in the courts, any oceanfront owner can make you leave for no reason at all, and this will undoubtedly set a terrible precedent for the entire coast.  Stand up and do not let this go unchallenged.