To the editor:

Kathleen Waters’ warning of Langley’s new comprehensive plan as an idealist’s imposition of a no-growth eco-village on an unsuspecting citizenry left me wondering why Councilman Robert Gilman dismantled the Langley Forum just as the plan was coming to a head.

The city’s sponsoring of the Langley Forum was one of the finest local contributions to an online community of intelligent discussion about decisions effecting our lives. Gilman set up and managed the site, then suddenly shut it down before discussion and persuasion had a chance to respond to suggestions and criticism about the new changes in the comprehensive plan.

If the city were to make one change costing very little, it would be to restore the forum where citizens could attend online to what matters in our community life, and share without fear of reprisal civil dialogue. In the new digital age of the computer, opportunities for exchanging ideas abound. The fear that some jerks hiding behind an anonymous persona might annoy others by their crude insensitivity is no reason to abandon the project of creating a virtual community on the South End. Idiocy can be moderated. Genuine insight and criticism should be stimulated, not shunned.

Before the city council votes on the new comprehensive plan there should be an online discussion of the concerns the Kathleen Waterses of our community wish to voice.

Jim Riley

Langley