READER'S WRITE

The viewpoint expressed in a letter from a Freehold attorney, published in the (June 28 The Asbury Park Press), could be called "a canary in America’s coal mine." It was less a cruel assessment of the motives of the eminent domain abuse victims, (he called it ‘greed’) than it was a warning of a dead canary in America.

The poison gas of detachment killed the canary. It was the detachment of some Americans from the necessary human trait of empathy. Empathy was the first signal of the transcendence of humans from a lower animal. The dead canary is the signal of a reversal.

When some began seeing their dwelling place as a house rather than a home, the canary began suffocating. Their houses represented only a market value that could easily be traded upwards to a bigger, more impressive house with no attendant emotion other than glee. There had been little opportunity to plant roots in a neighborhood from whence the concept of ‘play dates’ for children was formed.

The neighborhoods of kids on tricycles, bicycles, the softball lot and folks conversing over their fences, will soon become memories unless Americans can remain attached. It will all be swept away by eminent domain-acquired condos and McMansions that are inhabited by people who are detached from authentic social intercourse. These houses boast vast footage where children who live in physical detachment are themselves raised to be emotionally detached.

The Supreme Court ruling on Eminent Domain was received with outrage by the vast majority of Americans. For that, we are grateful. Most of our canaries are alive and well and we must keep them that way.

Bernice Roberts
Middletown, NJ