As the debate over drilling continues and the elections draw near, our communities are at a critical juncture. Residents of towns above the Marcellus Shale—not the multi-national energy corporations—must shape the outcome. To continue to make our communities places to be proud of, to raise our families in this safe and beautiful environment, we must work and communicate with each other.

Whether you descended from Wisconsin fur trappers or Beechwoods farmers, what matters now is your passion and commitment to the place you live in. Yet people who call themselves local would do the bidding of huge, outside corporations that threaten to destroy our air, our water, our property values, our roads and infrastructure, our farmland, and the way we have lived freely here for generations. They call themselves local, yet they are willing to risk their neighbors’ health and safety, to deny them—through compulsory integration—the right to refuse to allow drilling under their property. Are you still a local if you’ve become a pawn of outside corporations that have no ties to this place? If you oppose any oversight of, or restrictions on, these corporations, trusting that government agencies will protect us—the same ones whose budgets are getting slashed?

The real “outsiders” in our community are not the newcomers from the city who love the area for its beauty and uniqueness, or those who put the trees, rivers, lakes, streams and people first. The real outsiders are the gas and oil corporations, ready to extract our resources and sell them on the international market for billions in profit.

We must decide which candidates will put the health and well-being of the community first. Remember to vote November 8.

Zeke Boyle and Mark Ruffalo

Callicoon, NY