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OPINIONS
Voice of the people
Officials are selling lie in liquid coal
Cliff Brooks and other coal shrills are trying to sell us a foolish silk purse for a sow's ear on nasty liquid coal. Liquid coal is nothing more than snake oil, and the coal industry and its bought-and-paid-for politicians are snake oil salesmen. Their shrills are just too uneducated to see the folly.
Liquid coal produces major greenhouse gases that will be taxed. Coal is a finite resource that will soon be gone, so why would we be foolish enough to invest in another, even dirtier finite fuel like coal? The boom and bust cycle of coal is well known to many of us in the coal communities. Brooks might want to research that as he seems to be a safe distance from the blasting and toxic coal sludge we live in.
True energy independence will come from "plug-in hybrids." We don't need to remain economic slaves to dirty finite fuels when we can get our energy free. The electric car is the only real energy independence, and we can tell the fossil fuel industry what to do with their products that keep us poor and poisoned. There are no jobs on a dead planet.
Julia Bonds
Rock Creek, W.Va.
Columnist wrong about conservativism
I would like to respond to the opinion column in The Herald- Dispatch on Dec. 21, "Conservative values have plunged this country into its current mess," by Jon Light.
While I agree that the Bush administration committed some serious errors, none of them can be attributed to conservativism. George Bush abandoned conservative principles a long time ago.
Light stated that "Social trust rests on a foundation of economic equality." That is pure socialism. Social trust rests on the foundation of equal economic opportunity.
Light also states that conservatism is a "fundamentally undemocratic force." Does he think for one moment that Obama's "spread the wealth" philosophy is going to make everything all better? What is truly undemocratic is the liberal mantra of taking from the producers and handing out to the non-producers what they have not earned.
Think liberalism is all about democracy and the rule of law? We shall soon see, won't we?
Michael Gallagher
Barboursville
Clean industry will benefit W.Va.
We need to repower and re-employ West Virginia. We have the opportunity to employ tens of thousands of jobs for West Virginians in greening our infrastructure and developing truly clean energy. We can develop wind on our ridges, develop manufacturing plants for renewable energies in our valleys, retrofit our buildings to be more energy efficient, expand our public transportation systems and more. All these activities not only save energy and produce clean energies, but produce jobs, jobs, jobs for West Virginians.
We know coal mining will be active until it runs out. What we need to figure out is how to make the mining responsible to workers in the mines and the communities around the mines. We also need to rapidly deploy our economic might in re-powering our state and re-employing our workforce. These new clean industries can not only employ us through our lifetimes but employ our children through their lifetimes.
Our state government can do this by enacting a renewable portfolio standard that requires 20 percent of the electricity produced in West Virginia to be from truly renewable sources by 2020.
Daniel Chiotos
Charleston
Adolescents need drug services, too
I actually want to cover two complaints in this letter. I think it is great that the funding for the Healing Place has come through, and I feel that this is a good plan. We need all the resources that we can muster for this problem, but what about the adolescents?
I have worked with children from birth to 22 for 30-plus years and have realized that there is nowhere in a 100-mile range for teens to get help for suicide or a drug problem unless they have insurance. I have seen these children sent back to the family after a suicide attempt and discharged to home after a drug overdose with outpatient counseling. Most are just back again.
Where are the programs for them? If I am wrong, please let me know, because in my job we have tried numerous times to get them help and have come up to closed doors. These adolescents need help, not just four or five more pills to take. We talk about the future for our children, but the resources are just not there. Again, if I am wrong, please contact me.
Last but not least: Why were we wished Happy Holidays by Mrs. Bush and not a Merry Christmas? Just wondering.
Lenda Burns
Huntington
