Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

To the editor:

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Just be-cause something is legal doesn’t make it moral or ethical.

I’m speaking of the development of the ridge overlooking the Delaware River in Barryville. What we are facing in our nation today is spiritual bankruptcy. Community organizing and legal challenges to stop such destructive developments are good and necessary, but still fail to address the moral, ethical and spiritual vacuum that exists within the rich and powerful. Such battles wouldn’t be necessary if our leaders had a sense of spiritual and moral responsibility for maintaining the beauty of the ridge and of the surrounding environment.

The development of the ridge also reflects a large failure on the part of our religious institutions to morally influence these developers, our political system and the rich elite. It also reflects a failure of our political system to act swiftly to protect our environment and the general welfare and interests of all the citizens. Our leaders are elected to represent poor as well as rich. What we are witnessing in our age is a lack of spiritually enlightened leadership in America today, from the politicians to the CEOs to the developers, and the development of the ridge in Barryville is a shining example of this. The health of a community and a nation largely depends on the morality and spiritual enlightenment of its leaders. These leaders must try to understand that, in the end, it’s not how much money you have but how you live your lives, how you serve God and how you serve your community that matters. And those whose decisions affect the lives of many will be held to a greater account.

What will be their legacy? We ask them to reconsider their development plans for the ridge in Barryville. Preserve the ridge and they will leave a lasting, unforgettable legacy (read Job 20:4-29).

Paul Caterina

It’s results that count

To the editor:

It is now widely acknowledged that Senator Bonacic’s eminent domain bill—touted as an obstacle to the New York Regional Interconnection (NYRI) power line project—would never hold up in court because it is so narrowly drafted as to apply only to NYRI. No wonder Bonacic hasn’t sent the bill to the governor.

As long as the bill stays in Sen. Bonacic’s desk drawer, its legal infirmities are not revealed, and Governor Pataki is spared the burden of taking a position on the bill and on the NYRI project generally. Meanwhile, Bonacic and a number of his colleagues reap the benefit of a false public perception that the eminent domain bill is actually a meaningful contribution to the fight against NYRI.

If the NYRI towers are erected, it will be because elected officials failed to prevent them. In that event, I propose naming the towers after each and every such official. There would be a Bonacic Tower, a Gunther Tower, a Seward Tower, and so on in each district crossed by the NYRI power lines.

The names would be unofficial, of course, but local custom would enshrine them. Eventually, folks would give directions something like this: “Go 100 yards past the Hinchey Tower, then turn right at the Libous Tower.” There are plenty of other names—and plenty of towers along NYRI’s 190-mile proposed route—to go around. The goal of this proposal is to hold elected representatives responsible for the outcome of the NYRI battle, with no excuses allowed. The message is simple: Do whatever you have to do to get the NYRI projected killed or pay a political price in perpetuity. Otherwise, these politicians will rely on the assumption that time heals all broken promises, so that a few years after the NYRI towers rise, no one will remember how they got there.

Did any elected official suffer adverse political consequences from Marcy South? Does anyone remember? Crowing in press releases about bills that cannot and will not ever pass into law is not public service. It is simply gaming the public trust.

David S. Smith

Callicoon, NY

Rick doesn’t live here any more

To the editor:

A recent letter from Texas radio commentator Jim Hightower touches on matters that should be of concern to local Pennsylvania voters. Hightower reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sent a routine letter to Senator Rick Santorum’s official address in Penn Hills, but got it back stamped “undeliverable.” Seems our Rick hasn’t lived there for months but keeps the empty house as a front; he moved his wife and six kids to faraway Leesburg, VA.

What makes Rick’s hypocrisy outrageous is that he originally campaigned for Congress (back in 1990) on this very issue, proclaiming that his Democratic opponent didn’t live in the district he hoped to represent. Now we learn Rick doesn’t even live in the state.

“When this embarrassing reality surfaced,” High-tower reports, “Rick responded by claiming his Democratic opponent in this year’s senatorial race had sent operatives to trespass on the family’s property, which ‘put our six young children at a serious safety risk.’” That claim was, of course, an outright lie: there was no trespass of this deserted property, and the kids were in Virginia.

We shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Santorum staunchly claims that letting gay or lesbian couples wed would threaten his own marriage (he’s never been able to explain how), and he’s now desperately tapping into a Republican shell group (AJS) with ties to Karl Rove and the notorious Swift Boat Veterans (not to mention the pharmaceutical industry that “owes” Rick for being such a slavish Bush facilitator) to fund his new campaign of lies against Bob Casey. It’s long been obvious that, though our Senator cherishes his image of being straight, he certainly can’t think straight and never hesitates to lie his way out of inconvenient truths—such as not even residing in the state he claims to represent. Pennsylvania voters must make an honest man of him, come November.

The folly of death and destruction

To the editor:

The other night as I lay in my bed, I couldn’t get death, destruction and war out I my mind. Out of a frustrated and sleepless night came an agonizing conclusion: billions of man’s earnings have been wasted destroying not only each other, but our planet earth. Billions of dollars go “boom” all over the earth. Billions bathe human life in wracking pain, hunger, deformity, homelessness, enslavement, torture, contamination and destruction of life that could be beautiful to all of us regardless of our differences of race and/or religion or other prejudices.

I tried to remember a day in my life of almost 80 years of peace on this earth. I could not. A sorry legacy of today’s educated and civilized man. Perhaps men should not be our leaders, for men seem to love war more than they love the ground that supports the lives of their families.

But the cost doesn’t stop at explosion; it spreads like ripples from a rock dropped into a pond, in the form of medical expenses, losses to property and losses to food and crops. The list goes on without end, unless those in power say “stop.”

There never is one dollar or even one cent of return on any piece of war ordnance. The ka-boom of ordnance is a one-way express street to debt. Billions to go boom, but the hunger goes on, homelessness goes on, disease goes on, contamination of land and water goes on, animal and plant extinction goes on—and the excuse that there is no money available for good is thrown into our faces while many in power have their assets multiplied by powers of ten. This is a sorry story, and worse for the third-world countries, whose people are in a far deeper hole than we are.

We, people of this United States, are fortunate, but there are still some greedy beings who have too much control of our wealth. A nation’s wealth should be used for the benefit of all its people, not for corporate waste and corruption, as has happened all too often in recent history. Wake up and use your voices while you still have them.

Let’s keep our eye on the ball of immigration

To the editor:

Once again President Bush, in a foolish political delaying tactic, is posturing as a war leader. Our ally Israel was given a hoped-for excuse to start a war by the capture of a few soldiers by Hezbollah, and this is now taken as grounds for a continuing struggle.

Meanwhile, this latest crisis is sidetracking us from sticking with a subject that deserves our undivided attention: immigration. At one time, it may have been the case that unskilled labor was needed in this country, but that was before there was any welfare state to speak of and immigrants did not become the wards of taxpayers.

Now, we are in a different era, and there should be no open frontiers or dependence on unskilled labor from outside. Politicians are taking advantage of the issue to sell off our country for the votes they expect to get, planning a welfare system that will give services to illegal aliens that are only a dream for most Third Worlders.

The present asylum system is a joke. The system should be toughened up so people can be judged quickly and deported, and there should be a tougher stance on those who enter this country unlawfully and without sanction. One possible way of dealing with the problem could be a re-activated Ellis Island system. Some such approach like this is necessary to prevent the United States from turning into a Third World marketplace split by ethnic conflicts and doomed to fall behind the world’s most advanced countries.

No politician should be allowed to trade off our country’s future for enough votes to stay in office; such a person does not deserve to hold any office. The public should stay alert to watch what politicians do and pay less attention to what they say.