Letter to the Editor
Contributed by Pamela Baker
The Chronicle Herald
September 4, 2021
Originally published here
It seems that “the lady doth protest too much.”Gloria McCluskey (“Out of bounds” letter, Aug. 31) was not the subject of my Aug. 19 letter, but by assuming things about me, she has made herself the subject of this one.
My factual letter about the proposed golf course, to be built on a 10,000-year old ecosystem, was met with a personal attack on my lack of knowledge about golf, my inability to see the benefit of golf and a delirious claim that I cast aspersions on her beloved home course. She assumed things about me without knowing anything about my background. But why let facts get in the way of a good story?
I have golfed for years (on courses in Canada, U.S. and Europe).
Knowledge about golf was gleaned through years of close family executive experience in the golf industry. And her home course? I didn’t even know its name; but, I’m certain it’s a lovely private enclave.
She may think that her nephew, Anthony, and her friend Beck have an undying altruistic view about helping the people of the Eastern Shore but I tend to believe that their motives are slightly more self-serving. She should ask the residents of Cape Breton about “detrimental effect” and how they feel about those courses, with restaurants where they cannot afford to dine, beaches they can no longer access and expensive homes out of their economic reach.
Oh, a final thought. 700 “residents” on one petition? The Save Owls Head Facebook group has over 10,000 residents, scientists and concerned citizens. There are close to 5,000 on a signed petition and over 35,000 on an online petition. Every one of them is against the sale, the inevitable destruction and the golf courses. And those are the facts.
Pamela Baker, Ship Harbour