[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by eweissenbach

From the article:
If my email is any indication, residents hate hearing what is behind the curtain at The Villages. As things stand, they play golf and countless other games, are offered nearly limitless recreation choices and have restaurants and shopping that cater to them. For this, they pay what they consider a reasonable monthly fee. Where else, they demand, can they find such a deal?

I just don't get the mentality of,"you are either all for us or you are against us". I would liken it to those people who only read the columnists in the daily sun, or only watch Fox News, or for that matter, only watch MSNBC. If all you are willing to read, listen, or watch is material that confirms your beliefs, without ever challenging those beliefs by looking at another point of view, you are destined to be ill informed on many issues. Ritchie may be overly aggressive in her disdain for the developer, but you should at least examine the evidence to know if she has a point or not. Loving living in TV, is not necessarily inconsistent with being suspicious of some of the developers tactics or motives. Being very fond of the developer (the Morse family of corporations), does not preclude one from opposing or being suspicious of some of their actions. The Villages has apparently not conformed with the intent of the Florida CDD guidelines, by turning over control to residents within eight years, so shouldn't residents be a bit concerned about that?

I don't think you have read Lauren Ritchie as much as I have. She is not using the skills and values that guide most journalists who report issues... in my opinion. I think she is employed by The Orlando Sentinel as a columnist giving her opinions rather than a reporter who prints just facts... She is also not supportive of the views that most of us who live here espouse. We are cheering for the success of a business like the Morses have built. We are mostly moderate to conservative which is not the views of the paper that employs her.