Letter: Noisy know-nothings and BC rec center

EDITOR,
It’s hard to say whether the recent controversy over building a new recreation center in Boulder Creek is really unexpected, even though most of us agree on the need for a new facility — a place for our children, our seniors, our residents, all of us.
One can understand that the potential neighbors of the proposed center might have some cause for anxiety. Will the center generate too much noise? Will security be an issue? Will it increase traffic? Will it close at a reasonable hour?
These are reasonable concerns, but Boulder Creek Park and Recreation has shown that it is willing to listen to, and respond to, these concerns. No one wants to put this center where folks don’t want it, but Boulder Creek Park and Rec and the surrounding families should be able to work this out. And if there’s another site where the neighbors are happy to have the center near them, great.
But there are some in our community — a noisy minority — who seem to enjoy protest for its own sake. Too often, the noisemakers get the most attention, however unwarranted, from officials, from decision-makers and from the media. 
How can a community center generate the level of paranoia and mistrust we have seen and heard in pamphlets and speeches filled with misinformation? Maybe this fear-mongering is indicative of what is happening to this country as whole: It is becoming a land where noisy know-nothing “activists” dominate the news with their fact-free diatribes. 
What is the future of our country, our state or our town if we have no trust in even the lowest level of our elected officials — if we cannot agree on something as central to our community as this?
We are condemned to listen to nonsense if we ourselves will not speak. Please come to the next meeting of Boulder Creek Park and Rec to express your support for a new rec center in Boulder Creek.