Monday, March 29, 2010

Do You Support the "Spraying Program"?


A Cape Codder, vacationing in India, a friend who does green cleaning in the summer for us, sent me the link to a Cape Cod Times poll this morning. Indeed, from Friday to Saturday, the newspaper offered an online poll regarding our utility company … The poll was removed when the ratio of folks in favor of alternatives rose above 70%, before I was able to vote ….

Monopolies are not good. Agree? Disagree? If you live in the great state of Massachusetts, and agree, you can demonstrate your opinion by signing a petition to allow new municipal utilities to replace investor-owned utilities, like Unitel and N, creating competition. Find the petition here.

But, back to the poll that began this post.

How one phrases questions is important and quite revealing. Check out the wording:

N. wants to spray herbicides that it says are safe to keep vegetation from growing into overhead Cape high-power lines. Opponents worry about the groundwater. Your thoughts?

I support the spraying program: 29.6%

Find an alternative to herbicides: 70.4%

Can you guess the opinion of the pollsters?

Posted by Alexandra Grabbe at 8:30 AM

Comments (5)

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anjuli's avatar

anjuli · 781 weeks ago

it is so sad that they would remove the poll when they realized it was not in their favor!!
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Guest · 781 weeks ago

There are all manner of brush hogs and grinders and slashers, cut it and chip it, make it into mulch and give it away and make everyone happy. So what is the real reason for spraying =$$$$$$$$. And when someones child is born with a birth defect, no one will connect the spray and the injury right ?
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Laura Kelley's avatar

Laura Kelley · 781 weeks ago

This is a no-brainer...cape codders never asked N to change their ways from mowing, why won't they listen to 13 cape towns that don't want herbicides?
Maybe N has been around their own toxins too much to comprehend that.

All it takes are simple answers & knowledge to see clearly. I"m truly amazed this is unresolved. We all know anything with 'ides' at the end IS MADE TO KILL. When it comes to human health, why do we continue to go for money instead of morals? It makes it hard to want to live on Cape Cod if we have to fight to drink the water around here.
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Alisa's avatar - Go to profile

Alisa · 780 weeks ago

Yeah, they are definitely on your side. It's in the "says it is safe" phrase. It's like saying "claims."
My recent post I Had a Dream
1 reply · active 780 weeks ago
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chezsven's avatar - Go to profile

chezsven 82p · 780 weeks ago

Hmmm. Alisa, are you being facetious? First off, "growing into overhead power lines" is not an imminent danger since N. mowed a year or two ago and I would have hoped the people writing the poll would have known that, or if they didn't, they would have bothered to look. I also would examine the two choices. "I support the spraying program" is in the first person. If I had written this poll, I would have had the second option be "I would prefer N. resume mowing." They don't need to look for an alternative. They have one. Probably it is more expensive to mow. More than you wanted as a response, no doubt. Thanks for your opinion.

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