This letter was sent to the newspapers in 2012.

To the Editor,

While visiting Ringe’s town hall the other day, I found a very interesting document: “Defining a Town Center-Rindge, NH Charrette January 27-28, 2012 Visioning for Sustainable Communities”. This report is a classic example of an Agenda 21 visionary session. It is sponsored by Plan NH. Plan NH in their own words is “an association of professionals who work and care about sustainability…”

Sustainable development is a term that came from the United Nation’s sponsored Bruntland Commission and adopted by the UN’s Agenda 21 Rio Conference. While the term sounds innocuous, it means a total reorientation of all life on the planet. Canadian billionaire and Agenda 21 grandfather, Maurice Strong believes the American middle class is unsustainable.

This report told us how much they value the input from the citizens of Rindge. Trained facilitators don’t care what the people at their Charrette’s think, but they give the attendees the illusion that their plans and ideas are what will be implemented. Plan NH has some wonderful recommendations which are really off the shelf-drawn up by the American Planning Association back in 1993. Plan NH’s recommendations are just catered to the local community. The report recommends taking the Rt 119 and 202 area and turning it into a smart growth zone. The term “smart growth isn’t used in the report but that is exactly what it is. Recommendations include mixed high density housing or as they are called “stack them and pack them,” quaint retail stores, and a visitors center.

The report never mentions the next step: conservation restrictions, conservation easements, energy audits to determine one’s carbon footprint, promoting Agenda 21 ideology into the public schools, the creation of a green team that will enforce all of the new regulations, etc, etc. It also mentions funding sources including the Ford Foundation, and state and federal entities. Since this plan is not free market driven, taxpayer money will be used.
Conspicuously absent from any recommendations by Plan NH is creating real jobs by promoting industry and agriculture. Why? because they are, in the views of its members “unsustainable.”

Rindge has been around for over 200 years. It is a beautiful town that doesn’t need to buy into Plan NH’s totalitarian view of the future. I recommend that that Rindge and the rest of NH reject PLAN NH and the UN’s Agenda 21.
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