The World is Never Enough

This story is a smaller version of what has been happening and is still happening throughout our country and the world.

A wealthy couple living in a very nice house above Camden Harbor in Maine noticed that their potential ocean view was blocked by their neighbor's big, beautiful trees. They decided to poison the trees. The plan worked, and the trees died.

In the meantime, the herbicide they use leached into a nearby park and contaminated the town's only public beach. The product that was used, Tebuthiuron, does not break down, so it continues killing plants for years. The only way to get rid of it is to remove the soil (tons of soil) or to try waiting for it to be diluted over time. The couple ended up paying a $1.5 million settlement to the tree owner and around $214,000 in fines and fees related to the environmental damage. They haven't been jailed, and apparently are still members of the Yacht Club. And they got the view they wanted.

It seems like just another story of people with too much money and a sense of entitlement arrogantly taking whatever they want with no regard for anyone or anything else. The same thing happens on a much larger scale, too, and it affects everyone. Big corporations do this to us regularly. By "big corporations" I mean the greedy, short-sighted rich people who run them. Assisted by corrupt politicians, they eagerly poison our air and water and contaminate our soil, just so they can make more money.

Like the tree poisoner who didn't care that marine life would be killed for years to come as long as he could get a little more pleasure from his mansion, the oligarchs and robber barons are willing to destroy the future in exchange for the temporary gratification of acquiring more and more paper profits. A CEO might be able to buy another $20 million yacht or another private jet, while workers and their children can't afford the drugs the oncologist prescribed. It's not just that they have so much while others have so little. It's that they are never satisfied, and getting more, always more, requires them to take away the very little those others have.

Read the orginal story here: Poisoned trees

Read about another pollutors' triumph here: Court supports pollution

 

EPA's Effect on the Economy

Good news!

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) greatly benefits the U.S. economy by improving health and creating jobs.

Read about it here.
 

Choose Your World

What kind of world do you want to live in? A world where most people are employed and feel secure in their homes? Or a world where a few unbelievably wealthy elites live lives of extraordinary luxury while the majority struggle to pay the rent? A world where most people can get a decent education, giving them the opportunity to get modern jobs? Or one where the majority of people have no education beyond basic reading and simple arithmetic, and are suited only for difficult, menial jobs?

Would you prefer a world where mentally ill people get treatment, or one where they live and die in the streets? A world where elderly people, who have worked and paid taxes all their lives, receive the care they deserve in their final years, or one where they are cut off from food and medical care, and allowed to starve and die miserable deaths?

Do you want to live in a world where science, medicine, and technology continue to advance and make our lives better, or one in which progress stops (and maybe goes backwards)? Do you want your tax money to support programs that benefit you and your neighbors, or do you want your money to support gold-plated mansions, yachts, and fancy vacations for arrogant aristocrats, while you drive on streets full of potholes and you can't even afford to take your kids to the local amusement park?

Would you like to look at blue skies while you breathe fresh air, or would you like the view to be hidden by yellow clouds of chemicals that make you choke? Do you want to drink clean water, or would you rather be poisoned? Do you like the current world where most people in this country have a life expectancy of more than 80 years, or would you like to go back to the days when the majority died before age 50?

Do you want your children and grandchildren to have a great future? Or do you want them to live lives of fear and misery?

The first kind of world is the one most of us want. We want decent lives for ourselves and others. The second kind is the one our current Congress is trying to create. They want enormous wealth for themselves and their rich sponsors, and they want ordinary citizens to pay for it. They truly do not care what happens to us. In fact, many of them actually prefer a world in which the population is mostly poor and sick, because people who are suffering and struggling just to live are too weak to fight back.

While we are paying attention to the things the president posts on Twitter, state legislatures are quietly and rapidly introducing hundreds of bills that would make life much worse for normal people, while handing over yet more wealth and power to people who already have everything. The majority of people in Congress do not represent the people who voted for them. They represent the wealthy business people who pay them.

It doesn’t matter what party you belong to, where you live, what your background is. These people do not care about your interests. They will say they do, but then they will vote for laws that hurt you and help only the one percent. The only hope of stopping them is to call them and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, explain that they will no longer get your votes, and then vote against them when they run for re-election. Get rid of these people who use your money to live luxurious lives at the same time your life gets worse. Forget party loyalty. Be loyal to yourself, your family, and your neighbors.

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Resources:

• GovTrack will help you find the names and numbers of your representatives. Just enter your zip code.
• 5 Calls suggests some issues of interest and will guide you through the process of making calls.
• This government website links to information for federal, state, and local officials.

 

Death in the Gulf

Yes, I know, this isn't in the Valley. But everyone should see this.