Mark Annese

To the editor:I have lived in Madison now for two years with my two children who attend the wonderful elementary school. My wife and I love the education and nurturing from all the dedicated staff and volunteers and great people we have met becoming involved with the school. Prior to us moving here full time we had been coming up from the suburbs of Boston to our current home, making the three-hour trip on weekends and vacations the prior five years. I worked in Boston and Friday could not come soon enough, although Monday always did, so we could hit the highway as soon as possible to escape the grind of city life and head to the valley to enjoy a more relaxing atmosphere. When I found our current home seven years ago, its primary use was a vacation home. What I thought was a diamond in the ruff, which could have be compared to a junk yard dog who has lived outside and been abused all of its life was what I saw as a potential change in life style. My wife would not even walk into the house to look at it because it was in such disrepair. But I saw its potential and dreamed about one day moving up here full time and raising our children in a place were they would grow up with wholesome values. But I knew most importantly we would have to work hard to give them these things in life that we were unable to have or receive as children. It would always bother my wife how locals would make you feel as if you did not belong, just because you owned a home up here that didnt make you a local, even if your children were born up here they were still not considered locals, not that it really matters. It was like we were and still are in some ways outsiders, people from Massachusetts have been referred to by some as massholes, who are rich and come up here and only cause traffic, party too much and ruining the surroundings. I dont thing these people ever realize, or have the intelligence to realize, that without the thousands of visitors from all over the country and the world, who come up here and spend money in the valley we would not have what we see today. Ironically, my 9-year-old daughter calls tourists shoebies (she feels she can say that since she now lives here and goes to school here) but she doesnt know that the natives still think of us that way. My point is now that I live up here, have paid taxes to a community and a school system for years before we moved up here full time living in Massachusetts. I have to listen to people bicker about the cost of living and tax increases, do you people think Conway is different from anywhere else in the country?Hello, people, life is not all about money. I thought I was escaping this leaving Boston I thought moving up here was all about enjoying your family, friends and your surroundings boy, was I wrong. My wife and I both grew up living in apartments with single parents who worked day and night to try to give us everything they could and I love them for that. Most importantly, the community in which we lived gave to us an education in the public school system. When we were going to move up here, people always said it is a great place to raise your children but the high school sucks and no one would comment or explain what that meant. All they would say is that people have been fighting about and talking about a new school for yearsthey got that piece of information correctthey should have spent that energy selling corn pipes, banjos and shot guns and raised money that way for the new school and settled things like the Hatfields and McCoys. I think all of you people who are fighting the construction and sharing of a new high school and worry about their taxes going up need to move to Capitol Hill and play politics over real issues and stop it with your silly little bureaucratic circlesits ridiculous you try to take these positions so you can feel powerful, because this is this and that is that. There is a new library, larger recreation department, a full-time police officer at the school one writer commented in todays paper Once a new school is built there is bound to be people who will want ever more amenities to the building, such as a swimming pool, auditorium and larger athletic fields and facilities and in closing said "Its your money!" You people are out to lunch, and I can bet all of your children have grown up and moved out of the valley to live somewhere else, because you drove them out and you will drive this year's graduating class out. That is why you take these political stands and lobby to block the development of a new school, because you feel you personally dont need these services. I watch, read the local papers and watch the local cable shows and it makes me sick how you people try and act like you really care about anything but your portfolio. To think I left Boston, where people are afraid to talk or look at you because they think everyone is a potential axe murderer, and heaven forbid if you say hellothey will think you want something from them. Yes, here the locals always say hello, smile and wave and then talk about you behind your back. I am a transplant to the valley and whether my children are born here or not they will never be accepted as locals and thats OK because, hopefully, they will never become prejudice like the people I speak of and hopefully they will get a great education here in a state-of-the-art teaching facility. Maybe someday, one of my children or their friends will be on the cover of the newspaper, proud and happy to be alive on such a great occasion and hopefully, getting to that accomplishment, they got a great education. Even though I do not know any of the young adults on the front page of todays paper, I am happy and proud of their accomplishments. And you know something, never once did I think about how much my taxes were, I only thought of how they might have missed out on by not having the correct facility to learn in.