So a person should bend over and say thank you when the city takes their land and changes their neighborhood beyond all recognition? The nerve of some people, thinking they should actually have a choice in what happens to their environment!

It seems incredible, but not everyone agrees that Johnson County should be all urban. Not everyone approves when some of the richest farmland in the state is paved over and/or covered with malls and overpriced crackerbox homes. Some of us liked Lenexa when it was a little town centered around an antique train depot. Some of us enjoyed driving through woods and fields to get from Kansas City to Overland Park. And we're not all luddite nutcases; we are educated people who understand the economic and social value of a varied environment and a thriving local agricultural base, not to mention a healthy environment and a clean, thriving watershed. We have an important point of view that takes into account ecology and psychology as well as get-rich-quick economics. But instead of anything approaching a healthy debate or a constructive exchange of views, or the possibility of changing our local laws (which is the foundation of American government!), you say we are just supposed to accept the county or city's policies, whatever they may be, and shut up. If we object, or try to change the laws, we are sticking our noses where they don't belong.

Tell you what, Steve. Let's have the city of Mission Hills annex your neighborhood, pay you 10 cents on the dollar for your house, bulldoze it and put up a theme park. I don't think you would keep quiet about it. What happened to Tom Watson was no different, and every bit as much of a travesty. And he has as much right as you do to speak up about it, and try to change the laws that let it happen.