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Thursday, August 11, 2005

There's an irony here

The Buddhists are upsetting people:
Shortly after the Wat Lao Wattanaram Buddhist Temple of Wisconsin submitted applications for the building and zoning of a Buddhist colony in Caledonia, some area residents started pooling their resources to halt the possible construction on 13 acres that would include a temple, meditation building, fellowship hall, Buddha building and nun facility.

Some residents contend that Caledonia needs a larger tax base and is an odd choice for a Buddhist temple, but supporters argue that larger factors - mainly discrimination - are at work.

"Why did they pick Caledonia?" resident Holly Due said. "Does Caledonia have a huge Buddhist community? I don't see it."

Residents near the proposed development have been meeting informally and have filed letters of concern with the Racine County Economic & Land Use Planning Committee. [. . .]

"A great deal of it has to do with not knowing," said the Rev. Tonen O'Connor of the Milwaukee Zen Center. "Buddhism is not very well understood by a great many Christians."

Robert Mason, associate professor of Geographic & Urban Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, said communities often rally against building of religious institutions. He also said a conservation subdivision is tough to assemble.

"A Caucasian community and a Buddhist temple . . . there could be additional issues there," Mason said.
I think we need to airlift in some cream for that NIMBY infection, STAT.

Okay, okay, I see that there is an argument to made that it's more important to have another housefarm subdivision full of taxpayers. But, really, I think the Buddhists would make good neighbors.

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