Old-timers have witnessed many changes in Jackson

I am constantly amazed at all the crying about "overdevelopment" and "quality of life." These complaints almost always come from people who moved to the area five, 10 or 20 years ago. They complain of the new construction destroying the forest and impacting their "quality of life." It doesn't seem to occur to them that the construction of their homes also required clearing the land.

Their arrival in the area adversely affected the comfort and tranquility of those who preceded them, but that doesn't matter, does it? Imagine, if they had stayed where they were, we would have at least two cars less on the road, less crowding at the schools, more water in the aquifer and less traffic lights.

The writer [of one commentary] states that she came here 24 years ago. I have news for her; I came to Jackson 38 years ago. It was really rural then. The post office as it is today did not exist, the police were in an old one-room schoolhouse as I recall. In the late 1970s I heard Jackson described as a large forest with a few houses sprinkled around.

Don't blame the developers. They are providing a product for which there is a demand.

You and I are the people who changed it. All of us who came here from the 1960s onward have popularized the area and encouraged others to follow. No one who came to Jackson after I did affected my "quality of life." I'm solely responsible for that.

The people who I believe can complain are those who have been in Jackson since prior to the construction boom of the 1960s.

With a nod to Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Paul Santiago

Jackson