Letters to Editor
Bravo!
My three daughters, two granddaughters and I had the privilege to attend the show Les Miserables at the Geauga Lyric Theater on Feb. 3. I had recently seen this story on cable as a drama.
I was a little skeptical about going because the drama was rather depressing.
I just had to write and let everyone know this was a marvelously acted and directed play. The young people were incredibly talented.
Most of the time you could hear a pin drop; the audience was on the edge of their seats. And the applause after each scene was without a doubt, well earned.
I was amazed how the actors sang every word and we understood every word and the story unfolded. Bravo! to everyone involved. We could not stop talking about it all the way home.
Alyce Turner
Euclid
Learn From History
You wont see the following data on the U.S. evening news or hear politicians disseminating this information. Pay close attention as you read the outcomes in the 20th century in countries where the citizenry was not protected by a 2nd Amendment.
As tragic as are the recent killings by mentally deranged people, these numbers pale when compared to the level of violence in this history lesson.
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents were rounded up and annihilated.
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others were killed by the government.
China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents were slaughtered.
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, were put to death.
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians murdered.
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million people, the educated and political enemies were rounded up and eradicated.
In 1994, Rwanda established gun control. 800,000 Tutsis were massacred.
This brief history lists 56.7 million defenseless people around the world who were rounded up and exterminated in the 20th century because gun control left them unable to defend themselves against tyrannical government.
Our founders knew that unchecked power would result in the oppression of our citizens.
With our 2nd Amendment rights we are free citizens. Without them we are subjects. Which legacy do we want to leave to new generations of Americans?
For over 200 years many brave soldiers died to keep us free. Do we not have a responsibility to honor their sacrifices by maintaining our Constit-ution as our founders, in their wisdom, wrote it?
Reacting to the Sandy Hook tragedy the current debate is a controlled, purposeful narrative of deception from the Left. It is an effort to never let a crisis go to waste, a tactic right out of Saul Alinskis primer for Socialists, Rules for Radicals.
Make no mistake, the crisis is not about guns. It is about freedom. It is about liberty.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Denver Sallee
Newbury Township
Tolerable vs. Intolerable
Last October, I visited southwestern Pennsylvania where fracking of horizontally drilled gas wells has been going on for about three years.
I have seen the well pads in neighborhoods of residential housing.
I have talked with homeowners who live next to these industrial operations.
I have heard the stories of people who endured living next to the stench, noise and pollution that often comes with fracking.
They had very little recourse because there was no control over these operations by locally elected officials.
Local control is a conservative value we can all endorse.
One lady I met said, Why did they have to put a well pad right next to my house. A half mile from here are are no houses. It could have gone there. She plans to sell her home at a loss.
I would like to thank the trustees of Newbury Township for voting for a resolution which asks the Ohio General Assembly and the governor to restore some local control over oil and gas wells.
Jan Blair introduced the resolution saying, This resolution is not pro fracking, its not anti fracking, it is to protect the general welfare and safety of all of Newbury.
The vote for this very reasonable resolution was unanimous at the regular township meeting on Feb. 6.
This resolution does not fix the problem, however. Locally elected officials still have no control over oil and gas drilling. It simply asks our legislators and governor to restore the local control which was taken way in 2004 by the legislation, H.B. 278.
Most people probably think that zoning and other policies control what drillers can do as they move into our county with the new technology of hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled gas well.
If, in accordance with ordinances, the zoning commissioners can control where a gas station or shopping mall locates, then you might think that the placement of a five-acre well pad with seven wells, tanks, compressors and separators is subject to the same control. It is not. This is the problem that the resolutions, which were passed by Newbury, Russell and Chester townships, and the Village of Burton, address.
More work is needed to rectify the damage done by H.B. 278. More municipalities need to pass a similar resolution. More legislators and the governor need to be persuaded that communities must be able to protect themselves from the problems which will result from the coming gas boom.
It is the locally elected officials who are on the front lines. They are the ones who will get the phone calls from residents who have an objection to actions of a driller.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which now has near exclusive control over the drilling industry, will not be as responsive as our local officials who are also our neighbors. Officials with ODNR are appointed and their department is funded, in large part, by permit fees paid by the drillers.
There should be layers of control over the drilling industry. This is an inconvenience for the drillers, but for us it is the difference between tolerable and intolerable.
Fred Welty
Newbury Township
