Published: August 01, 2008 12:25 pm            

Letter: Stop blaming, start fixing

Originally published in the July 25, 2008, print edition.

To the Editor:

The letter on Page 2 of the July 11/18 issue of The Land — “We must search for more oil” — has several omissions.

President Clinton vetoed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and close into shore drilling, because that’s what the people of the United States wanted him to do.

The Republican-controlled Congress could have over-ridden his veto, but they didn’t to avoid something the American people did not want.

The letter writer cites the “Democrats now controlling Congress” but they do not; it’s merely that the Republicans no longer have total control of both the House and Senate. The Democrats do not have enough votes to over-ride a veto of nearly anything by President Bush. Unless, of course, some Republicans are listening to their people and vote to over-ride.

The war in Iraq, with the second largest oil reserves in the world, is a debacle, and we don’t have control of the oil yet, or anything else in that now destroyed land.

Under the Bush presidency the oil conglomerates have now posted the largest profits of any corporations in recorded history.

Speculators afraid of the stock market crashing have now gone into grain futures and oil futures with a vengeance.

Most Americans value “pristine wilderness” and the creatures who live there. Most, both Republicans and Democrats, do not want the entire world paved over and trashed for more money in their pockets or more things to buy.

The letter writer is playing the “blame game” he detests. Stop blaming and start fixing.

Rosemary Schaffer
Windom

        

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