Development overtaking quality of life

To the editor:

People who have moved here to escape from overdevelopment elsewhere are coming to face the same problems in their adopted environs, and are now slowly but surely losing the quality of life they once sought out.

We have senselessly yielded a freedom of choice to a body of township supervisors and others who have given way to selfish urges rather than showing concern for the good of the community. They should have been protecting the community from unfeeling developers with their harmful addiction to greed and the pursuit of a short-term profit.

These officials have not submitted for public vote any decisive issue affecting the surrounding areas, as should be the case in a democracy. It must always be assumed that all those who have power granted to them will abuse it.

More than enough land has already been developed to maintain the majority of activities of the present American population. Only in the most unusual circumstances should more open land be bulldozed to make way for the sprawling shopping centers in the name of the starry-eyed dream of some future economy.

Corporations like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the foretold Convention Center are unloaded on communities, setting up a goal to completely eliminate the competition and controlling the local field of economic activity.

The increasing density is placing a never-ending strain on the ever-taxed public, on the necessary upkeep of the roadways with their increasingly city-like traffic, on civil services, on crowded schools and on long-existing homesteads. Drug and crime problems are increasing. A strain is also being put on the existing sewage treatment plant, which in due time will have to be expanded or reconditioned at public cost, with detrimental impacts on local streams and rivers. The continuing reduction of water resources to benefit the oversized shopping malls are leading to a crisis in the quantity and quality of our ground-water.

The powers that be have taken advantage of the modern legal outlook on questions of freedom and private property, creating changes that are becoming increasingly dangerous to our environment.

Charles J. Sidlowski

Beach Lake, PA

Reform property taxes now

To the editor:

If you are happy with your property taxes and assessment, stop reading and do nothing. However, if you are dissatisfied, we are a group of concerned taxpayers who are organized to stop the runaway increases in taxable assessments and taxes that are forcing citizens out of their homes. We had over 150 in attendance at our September 21 meeting, and we have 600 names in our groups’ email and mail lists.

It is our belief that it will require citizens across New York State working together to force change. We need you to send a simple petition stating: “We want property tax reform now.” Sign and indicate your address, and send to your local representatives and to Governor George Pataki, State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224; Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, Legislative Office Building 932, Albany, NY 12248; and Senator Joseph Bruno, Room 909 LOB, Albany, NY 12247. If you can, please also send a copy to us at Concerned Taxpayers, P.O. Box 605, Morrisonville, NY 12962.

You may already have an organized taxpayer group in the Narrowsburg area. We would welcome linking up with your group to compare notes and discuss common approaches to alleviating this statewide property tax crisis, including the possibility of a statewide coalition of taxpayer representatives to deliver a petition of this type in Albany with press conference coverage by television and news media.

Please contact us at the above address, at concernedtaxpayers@charter.net or visit webpages.charter.net/concernedtaxpayers.

If we do not see action by our local representatives and government leaders, we will support new representatives that will respond to our needs in the next election year

Earl B. Burnell

Mrs. Gene Armstrong

Plattsburgh, NY

Psychopaths at the helm

To the editor:

Recently I attended a training for drug/alcohol professionals on the psychopathic personality. It highlighted the motives for psychopathic behavior, including greed, power and excitement. Two days later, I finished reading “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins. “He’s describing the psychopath!” I thought. Not that John Perkins is one; in writing the book, he demonstrates deep regret for his actions. But the term seems to fit those corporate leaders and their agents, as well as government administrators, who continue to engage in ripping off third-world nations in the name of economic progress, and without a twinge of conscience.

As one of Perkins’ trainers told him: “We’re paid to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars… In the end, [they] become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty.”

Take Iran, for example. In 1951, Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized all Iranian petroleum assets, unacceptable to our British ally. The United States then sent in CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy’s grandson), who arranged a series of riots and violent street demonstrations that led to the downfall and permanent house arrest of Mossadegh and to the replacement of him with the pro-American Shah, who came to cause the United States much embarrassment when he was deposed—while 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Perkins points out that our invasion of Iraq was about more than just oil. Water and geopolitics also played key roles, with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowing through the country which borders five other Middle East countries. He also explains how Halliburton and Bechtel moved into post-war Iraq to further what Perkins calls “corporatocracy to advance the global empire, corporations, banks, and governments [to] use their financial and political muscle.”

Perkins further points out that all the major news media are now controlled by other corporations: NBC by GE, ABC by Disney, CBS by Viacom and CNN by AOL Time Warner. Most newspapers also are controlled by large corporate conglomerates. Thus, how can we trust them to “Tell it like it is”?

I can only touch on these important features of Perkins’ book. Take time to read it for yourself. I recommend it more than any other book on our political climate that I’ve seen in recent years.

In the meantime, consider taking action. Perkins includes a “what to do” list for the reader, including learning to read between the lines of media coverage, cutting back directly on your oil consumption and downsizing your home, wardrobe, car or office—everything in your life.

For starters, come to a free open discussion program about Perkins’ book at the Wayne County Library, Honesdale, PA. at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, November 17

John Miller