NIMBY, Grumpy Old Man, and Being A Socialist

If you've never attended a public meeting hosted by some governmental authority you need to know the following.

• People fear what they don't understand.
• People don't like anything that goes near their property.
• People distrust government.
• People like to bitch.
• People dislike change.
• People dislike paying for anything.
• People tend not to listen to anything that challenges their assumptions.

As you can tell aspects of the Rapid Transit meeting went very well. I'll edit this later to give the scoop, but sometimes I wonder if public input is actually worth anything. Yes notice and comment is nice ideal, but you can't prevent people from having a watertight closed mind. I've never been called a Socialist before. Does anyone else find that amusing?