This book is only a glimpse into a misconduct that goes much deeper, much wider, and much higher than I can expose.
There is a Power that comes from the power of money, the power of influence of people in high places, the power of cronyism and corruption, and the power of fear: the fear that silences the oversight and the media — and the more compelling fear of rural residents: fear of retaliation.
It’s an arrogant power that sees the county’s poor and marginalized rural people; not as a community in need of help, not even as a people to ignore, but as the perfect victim: to oppress, rob, and constructively evict – taking their homes and their land – and fulfilling a “vision of the future”: where the rural community no longer exists.
Cornell is at the heart of that power — and the source of all its policies.
Prestigious Colleges have built a special high ground for themselves: a position of public trust in their motives and their policies – a position that is seldom earned.
I have previously written on this subject to educate: to show how the needs of rural people have been dismissively ignored.
In this book I will trace the paths of greed and power to their source: a Centrality that maximizes the value of self-interest; and minimizes the value of people — an elitist doctrine of privilege and hate.
How outrageous can that be; when there is not one fact, act, or rural policy statement that refutes it?
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All the “Secret Cornell” excerpts have not been sensational enough. The deliberate nature of Tompkins County’s rural destruction has not been highlighted with enough contrast. The greedy selfishness of its leaders has not been illuminated with a critical enough light. The impact of rural policy making has been chiseled into the bedrock of the rural community — but it has not been related with sufficient clarity or crispness.
Tompkins County has become a doctrinaire abscess; a year away from book burnings — I want to feel proud of what they’re throwing into the fire.
