Bravo Mendler

To the editor:

I appreciate Skip Mendler’s Peace and Justice Files and certainly agree with him. A few years ago, I heard Amy Goodman interviewing Octavio Butler, a black science writer, now deceased. I was so struck by something she wrote in early 1990s, that I made copies. She wrote:

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.”

I feel that she was amazingly prescient and accurate in regard to our situation today.

A mine is a terrible thing to waste

To the editor:

On May 15, opponents of the Holbert Quarry expansion declared that the Lackawaxen Township Supervisors do not have the authority to grant an application for mining in the Upper Delaware River Corridor. Township ordinances clearly reserve for the supervisors the last word over National Park Service (NPS) River Management Plan prohibitions, by judging the impact on the river.

The meeting adjourned without the township making a ruling on this issue. If this motion to dismiss the application is upheld, not only will the Holberts be stripped of their mineral rights, townships up and down the river corridor will seemingly have ceded their authority in the corridor to the NPS.

Lackawaxen, PA

To the editor:

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed a rule that nobody can burn anything—garbage, rubbish, leaves, trees, etc. There is a 30-day moratorium on this, but in the meantime, please write your objections to this to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Air Resources, attention Rob Stanton, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233; or email 215fires@gw.dec.state.ny.us.

This is very important, so please write your objections.

(Editor’s note: the current rule prohibits burning in towns with populations above 20,000; the proposed rule would expand it to include all areas. Comments will be accepted through 5:00 p.m. on July 10.)

Big savings possible in trucking

To the editor:

In a recent article in U.S. News, it was reported that Con-Way Freight, one of the largest trucking firms, is turning back the electronic devices that control speed from a maximum of 65 miles per hour to 62 miles per hour, which would result in a savings of three million gallons of diesel a year with a savings of $13 million.

If this is fact, and I’m not contesting it, then all over-the-road truckers should do the same. I travel all of the major highways weekly, and it is a rare case when I am not passed by most of the tractor and trainers that are also on these roads, and I am always traveling between 65 and 75 miles per hour.

My guess is electronic devices should be mandated in all semis and large trucks.