This season I find myself returning to a story we learned in childhood. In “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge is shown his world by three spirits so he might understand the true cost of choices made in pursuit of profit. In its own way, Sussex County is being offered a similar visitation through the Atlantic Fields proposal on Route 24.
Were the spirit of holidays past to visit, it would show quiet country roads, open fields and a time when families could reach church services and school concerts without sitting through long lines at a single light. It would show a community rooted in small shops and local traditions rather than endless commercial sprawl.
The spirit of holidays present would guide us to Route 1 and Route 24 today. We would see brake lights stretching into the distance, families leaving hours early for a candle lighting or Christmas Eve meal because traffic has become impossible to predict. We would see first responders inching through clogged corridors. We would see shoppers navigating more than 120 outlet stores that already strain these roads every day.
And then the spirit of holidays yet to come would reveal the future should Atlantic Fields rise along Route 24. We would witness that roadway overwhelmed with tens of thousands more cars each day, long before any promised improvements could appear. We would see tractor-trailers cutting through what was once farmland, their headlights sweeping across country roads late into the night. Storefronts in Lewes and Rehoboth Beach would sit dark as local retailers struggle to compete or even staff their shops. The peace of Advent and the stillness of Christmas Eve would be drowned out by the constant noise of a place built for consumption rather than community.
Yet in Dickens’ tale, Scrooge awakens with the courage to choose a better way. He learns that generosity and care for one’s neighbors are worth far more than any short-lived gain. That is the lesson this season offers us. We honor it by protecting what makes our towns livable and by choosing stewardship over excess.
Atlantic Fields does not have to be our future in a place that cannot support it. The spirits have shown the path. Now it is up to us to choose it.
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