The News-Times

Write your own ‘We’re leaving Connecticu­t forever’ opinion piece

- By Susan Bigelow Susan Bigelow is an awardwinni­ng columnist and the founder of CTLocalPol­itics. Her commentary first appeared in ctnewsjunk­ie.com.

It’s apparently the time of year again when welloff white conservati­ves sell their expensive homes and feel compelled to write editorials about why they are, regretfull­y, taking the piles and piles of money they earned here and leaving the state.

If you’ve ever felt like flouncing loudly out of Connecticu­t like a teenage girl from a Livejourna­l group, but weren’t sure how to write the necessary opinion piece, I have great news. Presenting: The “Write Your Own ‘I’m Leaving And Never Coming Back, So There’ Template®!”

Just choose the options that suit you best, submit to the newspaper of your choice, and sit back to await the J.R. Romano fundraisin­g email that links to your piece. Easy as pie! Ready to get started? Here we go:

Dear Editors,

As the leaves turn, it is with great (sadness | regret

| smugness) that my wife (Mavis | Pattie | KathyAnn) and I pack up our house in (Darien | Simsbury | Glastonbur­y) and depart for (Florida | North Carolina | Ferengi space).

We did not wish to leave. We (grew up | migrated from Westcheste­r to | got lost and found ourselves) in Connecticu­t, raised our (children | dogs | Fortune

500 company) here, and planned to spend our golden years in the state.

But Connecticu­t has changed.

I (shake my head in woe | sigh the sigh of the weary | let forth an unearthly howl) as I write these sad words. The Connecticu­t I once knew, a state where (teachers were hilariousl­y underpaid | the poor knew their place | Republican­s got elected) is no more. No longer can a young man (inherit lots of money and just sit around | work at his father’s company in Manhattan | fleece people for a living) without the everintrus­ive state stealing his hardearned dollars.

In the past, the business climate in this state was akin to (the Gilded Age | John Galt on steroids | Oliver Twist), a fact I am sure of because (I dimly remember it through a wineaddled haze | the angry radio man told me | the past is always better than now). But now, thanks to (Democrat overspendi­ng | taxes | a complex combinatio­n of national and global trends that work against us no matter what our government does), our business climate is (stagnant | dead and bloated | blown to tiny, pungent bits).

Our cities, which used to be full of (department stores | hockey teams | white people), are now shells of what they once were. Companies are fleeing to lowtax states like (New York | Massachuse­tts | California), taking their jobs and, more importantl­y, their CEOs with them.

This sad state of affairs can be laid directly at the feet of (public employee unions | liberal weenies | Bolsheviks) and Governor (Malloy | Lamont | whoever was in charge before that, I don’t remember). Decades of failed policies, including (taxes I don’t like | giving state employees pensions only people like me should be entitled to | that pothole outside the Big Y) have broken this once proud state, reducing us to a laughingst­ock.

We have had chances to change our course, and we have not taken them. We could have elected solidly middleclas­s people who are in touch with the concerns of the working man, like (Bob Stefanowsk­i

| Tom Foley | Linda McMahon) to high office, but we did not do so. It is a mystery to me why the taxburdene­d people of our cities do not vote Republican, and my fellow Republican­s and I can only assume it’s because they are too (lazy | high | brown).

And now the state is proposing to do something much worse: put tolls on the highways. Oh, cruelty! I (weep | clutch my wallet to my chest | check my stocks) just thinking about it. Is there nothing this state won’t do? Is it any wonder people are fleeing Connecticu­t for states without tolls, like (Pennsylvan­ia | Indiana | Florida)?

And so I take my leave, and I am encouragin­g all likeminded people to do the same. I have not yet lived in the place I am moving to, but I am certain life there will be (as free as the eagles wheeling in the sky | a fairy story where I shall dance with the elves | definitely not inconvenie­nt in some way I haven’t anticipate­d). This cursed state will not learn its lesson until (we take our toys and go home | enough editorials like this are published | the state is burned to the ground and we rejoice upon the ashes).

The only thing I will miss will be (complainin­g about Connecticu­t | lecturing people about Connecticu­t | obsessing about Connecticu­t). But that is no small price to pay … for freedom.

So long, (fellow citizens | Connecticu­ters | suckers)!

The Connecticu­t I once knew, a state where (teachers were hilariousl­y underpaid | the poor knew their place | Republican­s got elected) is no more.

 ?? Hearst Connecticu­t Media file photo ?? The Connecticu­t State Capitol building in Hartford.
Hearst Connecticu­t Media file photo The Connecticu­t State Capitol building in Hartford.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States