To the editor:

What is more important: neighborhood schools or state-of-the-art high school sports stadiums? Would you rather adequately maintain current roads and infrastructure or finance future growth that benefits a small influential minority while saddling taxpayers with greater long-term infrastructure maintenance costs? Should schools purchase the latest technologies but then cut staff or arts education in order to stay solvent?

To argue that the choices are not as I describe, because the money comes from different accounts of donors is disingenuous. Ultimately, a community has finite resources. (And where do you suppose the money to maintain those new stadiums is going to come from!)

The airport redevelopment is not just harming North Lawrence. The Farmer’s Turnpike island annexation is not just ripping off residents near Lecompton, and the issue of closing neighborhood schools impacts more than just those neighborhoods. If you care about any of these issues, then you need to take a stand on all these issues!

Until we stop letting developers and sales people wield undue influence upon what we as a community buy or build, we all risk losing services and assets that make Douglas County wonderful — or, alternatively, being bankrupted by the taxes!