Another bridge to nowhere

To the editor:

David Jones bemoans in his letter about protectionism in the February 5 issue of The River Reporter that “We are transferring our wealth to other nations and we are in big trouble.” But he advocates encouraging our wealth to be transferred to Norway, which owns a large share of the leases of Chesapeake. That is a contradiction.

He lauds natural gas as clean and cheap, even though overall it releases in its production and burning similar amounts of pollution as other fossil fuels and can’t be profitably extracted from Marcellus Shale unless the price comes back up to compare with oil.

He says, “Other energy sources must be developed, but we must be realistic because they will take time.” Not true. They are ready to deploy now and only take our commitment and funding.

He states that “Natural gas is the bridge fuel, with more than 150 years of supply that is critical for the transition.” With global heating and climate disruption already past critical levels and natural gas still a dirty, outdated fossil fuel, unless we invest now in renewable energy instead of gas, there may be no people left in 150 years on the other side of that bridge.

Help BUSS save Duggan

To the editor:

Did you know that there is a strong possibility that the Cornelius Duggan Elementary School in White Lake will close by the end of the school year? Bethel United to Save our Schools (BUSS) is a group of concerned citizens, business owners, and government officials from the Town of Bethel and throughout Sullivan County whose mission is to keep open the Duggan School in White Lake while keeping any tax increase to a minimum. This is a community issue, not just a school issue.

Rural communities with schools have higher rates of growth, higher housing values, a lower percentage of households receiving public assistance, more professional workers and entrepreneurs, and higher per capita self-employment income than rural communities that have lost their schools.

Thirty-eight percent of the people in the Bethel area who took our online poll said they would leave our community if Duggan School closes. Research supports this predicted decline in the population. How will our local businesses survive if we have an exodus of our population?

You can join your voice with Bethel United to Save our Schools. You can join our letter-writing campaign to the media, legislature and school board. You can help us make a strong showing at board of education meetings, where, traditionally, few people show up and it has become easy for the board to make hard decisions in an empty room. You can support our financial efforts to pay for professional and legal consulting services and to cover basic operating expenses (i.e. office supplies, maintaining a website, signs and publicity).

We have two months to develop alternate solutions to our school closing or our taxes going up. Please contact us at info@savedugganschool.org or call us at 845/798-5885 and tell us you are ready to help.

Bethel United to Save our Schools

Egan betrays the faith

To the editor:

I am a Catholic and find it hard to comprehend how one of my church’s leaders could desecrate a time-honored affair for the memory of a great man, Al Smith.

Cardinal Egan of New York (you may remember him from the notorious Boston group with Cardinal Law and the disgraceful way they handled the pedophile problem there) has betrayed our Catholic faith by inviting the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to ever run for U.S. President to the annual dinner.

Obama not only supports legalized abortion, he backed outright infanticide by opposing the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act. He also favors taxpayer funding for abortion in all 50 states. Tens of millions of our tax dollars already go each year to Planned Parenthood.

It is an abomination that His Eminence would welcome Obama to this function.

What a message to send to the faithful when their supposed leaders sell out their faith for bipartisan respectability.

Nuclear pork

To the editor:

Two hundred and forty-three groups, including Northeast PA Audubon, signed a letter urging the Senate to remove $50 billion in nuclear power and coal pork from the stimulus bill. The letter was hand-delivered to every Senate office on Wednesday, February 4.

Members of the House are concerned that the Senate version of the bill contains too much pork barrel spending with no stimulative effect, especially regarding nuclear and coal loan guarantees. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted a 50 percent default rate among utilities that would use the loan-guarantee program to build new reactors, some utilities seeking 80 percent of project costs. The loans would not come from the private sector (which is savvy enough to refuse investing in financially risky nuclear power), but from the U.S. Treasury itself—us. This is taxpayer money bailing out private utilities to deliver us expensive and risky energy that does not alleviate climate change or stimulate our economy. Are you willing to be bankers for new nuclear reactors or “clean coal” boondoggles?

Please contact your senators immediately to say no to nuclear and coal loan guarantees. Readers can go to www.nirs.org to contact senators and to read more about this.

Time to decriminalize

To the editor:

The current kerfuffle surrounding Olympic swimming superstar Michael Phelps, who was caught on camera apparently smoking marijuana, makes a strong case for drug policy reform—specifically, decriminalization of possession or use of small quantities of marijuana.

American society allows (if not actively encourages) the social use of such drugs as tobacco and alcohol, which have their own deleterious health effects at least as bad as those associated with cannabis. Given this fact, it is hard to maintain that casual usage merits the stringent legal and social sanctions that can now befall an otherwise innocent and law-abiding citizen, even one with the outstanding record and excellent character of Michael Phelps.

(Of course, I believe that the right to use marijuana, like alcohol and tobacco, should be restricted to those of legal age, and irresponsible abuse of that right—for example, driving while intoxicated—should be answered by the full force of the law).

Last year, Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced bipartisan legislation decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level. I understand that this legislation is likely to be reintroduced in the present Congress, and when it is it will deserve our support. We should also be working for decriminalization at the state and local levels. Too many lives have been ruined by the present system, and too much taxpayer money expended on prosecution and incarceration of otherwise harmless offenders.

Sunshine library loves patrons

To the editor:

The Sunshine Hall Free Library, a small public library in Eldred, NY, serves residents of Highland and Lumberland. It depends in large part, on funds raised through an annual book sale and events like rummage sales and penny socials to cover basic operating expenses. Proposed cuts in state aid to libraries now threaten funds our library system (the Ramapo Catskill Library System) sorely needs, during tough economic times when public library services are more necessary than ever. The library will extend amnesty to any patrons with currently accrued fines on overdue items that are returned to Sunshine Hall Free Library during Valentine’s Day week (February 14 through 21) to show our appreciation to library supporters who, in 2008, exceeded our expectations of donations raised through our fundraising brochure. On behalf of the board of trustees, I would like to thank each and every person that understands that public library funding is an expense that we all share for the benefit of our community overall.

Eldred, NY