As a resident, I wish to reply to the town board’s recent resolution, inviting the gas industry to come to our town.

1) You cannot pass a meaningful resolution invoking “property rights” if it doesn’t include everyone’s property rights. People who are not in favor of hydro-fracking have property rights too.

2) You cannot make hydro-fracking “safe and responsible” by passing a resolution saying you want it to be. It doesn’t work like that. I shouldn’t have to say this, but it seems I do.

3) A resolution is supposed to speak for the residents of a town. It is undemocratic, if not illegal, to enact a resolution without first providing public notice and inviting public comment.

4) Most Important: You Don’t Speak for Me. As elected members of the town board you may conduct town business: you may pass laws that I must obey; you may levy taxes that I have to pay; you may spend that money or even misspend that money ... but you don’t speak for me! Don’t put words in my mouth. If you want to send a message to the governor, write him a letter and do it on your own time. Whether my opinions about the dangers of hydro-fracking are in the majority or minority, it doesn’t matter. I don’t surrender my rights not to be poisoned by the activities of others, and you don’t take those rights from me by passing a resolution. You Don’t Speak for Me!