On Friday, the Register-Star weighed in on the issue of the Shacks in an editorial: "The work of restoring the Furgary must go on." In defense of preserving the site, the editorial makes this somewhat bewildering argument:
The Shacks offer a counter-history, a glimpse of how Hudson once lived and worked and how it can move the city forward. Like the three notches that marked the path to Jules Verne's center of the Earth, the 17 cabins of Furgary point the way to the future, offering a sort of instruction manual for the city to build what it needs to advance.
Although the Register-Star editorial refers to seventeen shacks, at the time it was written there were only thirteen. One of the four shacks that have already been demolished was the most historically interesting. That was Shack #13. The images below, which were posted recently on the Furgary Fishing Village Facebook page, show Shack #13 not long before it was demolished and in its heyday.
A lack of interest on the part of residents destroyed the shacks, and sometimes open contempt reinforced by relentless misrepresentations. (In the latter case I'm tempted to add "You know who you are," but those who are dishonest AND culturally ignorant are seldom self-aware.)
ReplyDeleteWorse, though, was the listless response of residents, pre-Covid, when the DRI Committee opted to close their meetings to the public. Such bad faith and almost nobody flinched.
Who in Hudson grasps the principle "of the people, by the people, [and] for the people"? Too few if anyone.
And that's what's done the shacks in, fools.