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Kevin White 7: The saga leading to “The Vote”
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The saga leading to “The Vote”
In the upcoming two weeks prior to the main event,
some extreme behaviors will be exhibited as the public begins to identify
the clear winners and losers between the two camps of contestants.
Fairwinds is on
the ropes. And they know it.
This is evident as they shuffle their public
relations people around in a last ditch attempt to curry public favor.
This new person,
Dennis Bailey, leader of the anti-casino movement, has his work cut out
for him. Although he is the “golden boy” of the moment, still flush from
the success of his recent victory, this new campaign is not an enviable
position to assume.
Only a minor few want Fairwinds. It is apparent to
most that it is grossly inappropriate for Harpswell. And there really is
nothing that
Mr.
Bailey can magically say that's going to make people want to swallow
it...no matter HOW much seasoning he puts on it.
The reason for his crushing success in the last
issue was simple. The vast majority of Mainers didn’t want it.
The underlying reason for his last
success will be the opposing cause of his impending failure.
The majority of Harpswell voters see through the façade of Fairwinds. They
overwhelmingly reject it. They like their town as it is. They know that
Fairwinds portends changes undesirable to the majority of the town’s
populace.
“Industrial” is not
who they want to be.
This is a real problem for certain parties that had
heavily banked on Fairwind’s success and perhaps made certain promises
regarding the probability of its passage when Conoco Phillips was trolling
and assessing area sites.
So now the problem becomes: “How do we reverse
public opinion?” The answer: “Vilify the opposition.”
For those of
you who are easily ruffled when things get nasty, please steel yourself.
The public relations firm, in order to achieve their objective, has to
make the opposition appear nastier than Fairwinds, and that is saying
something.
Selectman
Weil
now has a problem. He portrays the “underdog” (the multi-billion dollar
corporation—via the selectboard) as “the victims”—of everyone and
everything—Fairplay, Harpswell.info, the Portland Press Herald, The
Anchor, HCTV, The Times Record, the fishermen, the broadcast media, and
those meddling rapscallions from “away” who should remain quiet and out of
the discussion.
Fairwinds
supporters have been charged with painting themselves victims of vandals
and biased propaganda. It is not so.
They would love
everyone to forget that much of the recent information that has been
presented is factual and fair.
Because of the
undeniably strong evidence that the revenue money is an illusion (Yellow
Woods Associates socio-economic report), such a facility is inappropriate
for residential neighborhoods (Dr. James Fay, et. al.), lobstering in
Middle Bay will be severely damaged (The Lobster Conservancy, et. al.),
sprawl follows industrial development (Maine State Office of Planning), it
is potentially lethal (Algiers), it is a terrorist target (The U.S.
Federal Government) and other related concerns (real estate devaluation
etc...) surrounding this venture, extreme tactics have been launched by
Fairwinds’ public relations firm to dismiss and discount all of the
contrary evidence as biased and unsubstantiated.
It is neither. It is as it is. The "slant" simply
comes from what the evidence says.
Dr.
Weil’s diatribe last night might have been performing to a public
relations media script as some of the strong wording of what he stated was
apparently identically culled from another speech given by another
Fairwind’s supporter who spoke recently at another event. In the corporate
world, this is called “talking points”.
There is a lot of deep emotion surrounding this
divisive issue. Believe it or not, it will probably get worse. There is a
LOT
on the line for some people. You may hear and see some very disturbing
things and bizarre accusations in the upcoming couple of weeks.
Try not to get too
upset. Try to anticipate it, expect it and keep it in perspective.
If you are personally the target of such attacks,
please don’t take it too personally. However unpleasant, it likely isn’t
your fault.
Understand it
for what it is and try to forgive.
Fairwinds is
desperate....
It will not die quietly…and the propaganda will be
smothering. |
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