Letters to Editor
I have to thank Ann Wishart for her Geauga Down Under Jan. 3 report on our U.S. EPA plan to study fracking…
Gagging on Toxins
I have to thank Ann Wishart for her Geauga Down Under Jan. 3 report on our U.S. EPA plan to study fracking impacts on drinking water, Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water. (Resour-ces: http://www.epa.gov/hfstudy, all 278 pages.)
With all of this information, along with the progress report, we now have plenty of information. We understand that now we have the recipe for toxic poisoning BIG TIME!
With so many more horizontally drilled wells planned on, minus the needed regulators, we can count on enough injection waste fluids to gag all of us with the misfortune of living over our Marcellus shale layer.
We are already forced to accept the injection wastes from New York and Pennsylvania.
Media reportings like Ann Wishart’s are our Godsends. I have read the horrific compilation of Stories From The Shale Fields. These sickening testaments are kept under wraps. Why did the doctors who treated these people have to comply with a gag order?
We live in a free country. The information we need is plentiful whenever we decide to study up. But unless and until we read these testaments and are moved to action to stop the industry, time wasted will find more of us gagging, too.
Gagging not just on our own words, but on the very toxins we are accepting.
I read our choices to be:
We can just sit on it and hope.
We can gag on it for not acting as one to at least try to stop it.
The difference between what we are doing and what we are capable of doing would solve most of the world’s problems. – Mahatma Gandhi.
Either way time will surely decide for us.
I pray that Holy God forgives us for all the waste.
Peggy Pfenniger Sugerman
Burton
Dangerous People Out There
Mt. Vernon, N.Y., the summer of 1977 blackout. I was 12 yrs old in my home holding a .357 magnum with instructions from my father to shoot if anyone gets by me.
He was outside, alone, Coleman lantern ablaze, shotgun in hand, standing firm protecting his mother, wife, daughter and son from the gang of looters who were systematically raiding the neighborhood.
I watched as the mob approached; we were petrified. For a moment, they stood hesitating at the sight of the armed guardian and then moved toward him. Raising his gun, they started running, but in the opposite direction. Come morning, our beautiful city looked like a war zone. Every home around us had been invaded, except ours.
My parents were Cuban refugees. Growing up I learned that Castro had led the charge to depose a dictator with the promise of instituting democracy. Once in power, the police went house-to-house politely asking citizens to hand over their guns Guns for what? went the slogan, The war is over, let there be peace.
My father declined to give up his family heirlooms but was puzzled that the officer wrote his name in a book. Shortly thereafter, Castro would stun everyone with his declaration, I have been and always will be a Marxist-Leninist. The populace had been disarmed. Hence began decades of a brutal dictatorship. One guess as to what happened to my dads guns…
Now, I myself am a dad and husband. I am also a physician, with an MBA and law degree. I am a devoted student of the American Revolution. I joined the Air Force when we were attacked on 9/11. I am a law-abiding citizen who loves and has sacrificed much for his country. AND, I’m an NRA member.
It seems to me that there are two separate camps with regards to the gun control issue: those who want others to protect them and those who would rely on themselves for protection.
Many politicians appeal to the former for votes, just finger-in-the-wind-say-anything-to-keep-my-job tactics to get re-elected. Meanwhile, the latter and I’m in there is vilified and called crazy, lunatic, blood-stained and even murderer. Really? Seriously? When exactly did I become the bad guy, or am I just the easy target for public passion?
The knavery of human nature (as Alexander Hamilton would say) has not, and never will, change. I would caution against putting too much trust in government or elected officials with simple answers which leave us weaker and dependent upon them.
As a minority, I often remind my brethren that the first gun control laws were enacted after the Civil War specifically to prevent African Americans from owning guns, thus keeping them subjugated.
I would urge all Americans to reflect rationally upon real solutions for our present reality: there are dangerous people out there that must be deterred from acting or stopped. It’s not the way I want it, but that’s the way it is. We need to let those willing to fight do so and let the would-be crazies know it.
Benito A. Alvarez, M.D.
Chester Township
Keeping Up With Newbury?
Recently we noted the dilapidated state of the Auburn Township Fire Department road sign on Washington Street. We encouraged the fire chief to replace the burned out lamps.
Apparently, following our advice AVFD maintenance has resulted in a sign as good as when newly installed. The ballasts and lamps were changed at a cost of $800 and the sign is brighter than it has ever been. We thought it was a great job and thanked the chief.
Lo and behold, Auburn trustees on Jan. 7 announced they are now going to replace the new creation with an electronic digital sign at a cost to the Auburn taxpayers of many as yet undetermined thousands of dollars.
Hey, guys, wasn’t the time for that decision before you spent the $800 to repair the old sign? Unless you are going to train someone to program and maintain the new sign, it too will have old and outdated information just like the original one.
It is not the sign that is important here. It is the ability to communicate year-to-date calls and other important township information like the date of the annual pancake breakfast and the annual clambake.
Thomas and Diane Jones
Auburn Township
