Ever get a phone call and run outside, hoping to get a decent signal before the call drops?
One of our neighbors came ’round with a petition the other day.
There are plans to build a cell phone tower on the Catawba campus, near our house. The petition was asking the planning board to postpone a decision until the neighborhood has time to study “the situation.”
The board met last week, and I haven’t heard from anybody who knows what happened.
We’ve had a few battles in the past over zoning. If they want to build a dorm or parking lot across the street from my house, I want to register my voice against it.
But I’m not that unhappy about a cell phone tower that’s on the other side of the campus.
In fact, it would be kind of nice to get a better signal at home.
A few years ago, we did away with the home phone. We noticed that we never used it and it cost a lot.
At that time, we seemed to enjoy a better signal on cell phones than we have recently. I think the AT&T signal has degraded a bit because of the iPhone’s popularity.
But if it weren’t the iPhone, it would be something else. These devices are a fact of life.
I’m not sure if we’ll be able to see the tower from our house or not. I doubt it.
I’m pretty sure I’m not nearly as hypocritical as some of the politicians I see on TV. Consider the adulterers leading the battle to impeach a President for adultery. The deficit hawks leading the battle for massive tax cuts for the super wealthy. Or even those who have had government health care since the day they were born railing against the adequacy of government health care.
But I also know that I’m not Gandhi or Henry David Thoreau. I’m a normal human being, limited in knowledge and point of view, capable of arranging my thoughts to justify what I do — and probably equally as hypocritical as the next guy or gal.
Wouldn’t protesting a cell phone tower, while making daily use of a cell phone, make the hypocrisy a little blatant?
So I see no need to fight this one. If Catawba College can lease a bit of property and make a few dollars for higher education — and enhance the quality of our phone calls — I’m okay with that.
Of course, I’m about three blocks away from the site. I’m sure I’d feel different if I lived right next door.