To the editor:

I would like to applaud and thank Senator Walter Felag and Senator Lois P. DiPalma for their recent efforts to stop HB 6172 Sub A, the so-called Right to Farm bill, from being approved by Rhode Island’s Senate.

Here in Little Compton, the bill — which is actually a sop to big business — would allow Carolyn’s Sakonnet Vineyard to pursue unhindered its path of upending how our town has long been: a quiet, rustic, secluded place that enjoys its low-key ways.

Instead of focusing on wine, the vineyard hosts concerts and weddings, and shills “Local Mercantile,” bringing to mind Bob Newhart’s classic bit detailing the hapless, sell-this-that-and-the-other-thing, Grace L. Ferguson Airline (And Storm Door Company).

Similarly, CSV’s stated desire of laying down asphalt on agriculturally protected land, reminds me of Joni Mitchell’s eloquent song Big Yellow Taxi, with its all too accurate line, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”.

In light of the vineyard’s 28 events this summer — they sought to have 45 — and their website’s making clear to applicants of seasonal jobs that “Hospitality experience (is) preferred”), should the Right to Farm bill be made into law, Carolyn’s Sakonnet Vineyard would be due for a name change to, say, Carolyn’s Sakonnet Concerts, Weddings, & Whatever I Can Make a Buck Off Of. Sure it’s a mouthful, but it’s also more truthful.

Or how about: Carolyn’s Sakonnet V.I.N.O.: a Vineyard In Name Only.

Kudos to Sen. Felag and Sen. De Palma for their enlightened efforts!

Ivor Hanson

Little Compton