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Issue Home September 29, 2010 Site Home

Letters to the Editor Policy

Dealing With Frustration

America is frustrated and, unable to deal with our frustrations, Americans become afraid. The movies and games of today insult so many of us and we see our children and grandchildren’s views swayed by them. Sex of all varieties is constantly "explained." Addictions to pornography, gambling, alcohol, sex and self indulgence are rampant. Meetings for those suffering from these addictions and family and friends whose lives have been shattered by loved one’s addictions are many and very full. Daily there are revelations of horrible attacks planned on our country and our loved ones serving in the military. It is no wonder we fear. It is no wonder we feel the need to lash out.

The saddest thing in all of this is the “documented-well researched” claims of authors who lash out at what is good in our world. I have the privilege of knowing a person who has worked long hours with Mother Teresa. Do I claim she was incapable of making a mistake? To do this would deny her human condition. But I know most are unable to do the work she did and her sisters continue to do. The stench of those rescued from the horrible back streets of India, full of vermin and open sores is beyond their ability to endure. Yet Mother personally bathed them and put salve on their wounds for she believed every child of God deserved dignity and especially a dignified death. She never asked their religion or beliefs. She held and fed them and assured them of God’s great love for them. She refused to ask a sister to do what she herself did not do and she did the most disgusting jobs including, on more than one occasion, hand digging the feces from clogged drain pipes so it could again drain. Her job was always what others could not do. When she sent the Sisters of Charity to the U.S. it was to give our Aids victims (today’s lepers) the same dignity in death as she insisted on for the untold number they rescued in India and most countries around the world. To not know where every penny contributed to Mother went simply means a person has not researched the reality. Sisters of Charity go to the poorest of the poor - those society refuse to acknowledge. They are world wide and totally dedicated to the least of our brothers and sisters. They share the poverty of those they serve in all respects. Although religious vocations are lacking in the U.S. those wishing to try to do Mother’s work are more than can be accepted. Please pray for the Sisters of Charity and those they serve - for they truly see the face of Christ in all those they minister to.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Jackson, PA

Take Part!

October is Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children Month.

Did you know that what children learn before kindergarten affects their success in school and later in life? The first five years are essential to brain development as well as shaping literacy, mathematical, and social skills. We cannot recreate this opportunity later in life. When it comes to early learning, there are no “do-overs.”

This October, help celebrate Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children Month by learning about quality early learning initiatives in Pennsylvania and Susquehanna County, encouraging others to promote quality early learning, and signing Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children declaration.

We can all help youngsters achieve. To learn what you can do or how to sign the PA Promise declaration, log onto www.papromiseforchildren.com. You can also contact Susquehanna County CARES (Childcare, Agencies, Resources, and Educational Services.) This non-profit group is dedicated to enhancing quality early learning and child care in Susquehanna County. Reach them by calling (570) 465-5040 or via email at stcares@epix.net.

Remember, every child is Pennsylvania’s future and our future depends on it!

Sincerely,

Stephnie Thornton

Program Manager, Susquehanna County CARES

Go To The Party

I just love behind the scene, it’s where the magic happens. It is also true of the politics. Some of us may remember, way back to 2007, when the Democrats took over the House and Senate. Americans, with George Bush as President, enjoyed high Dow Jones numbers, low unemployment, and 52+/- months of private sector growth, which created jobs. Alas, that is not true anymore. I see so many zeros on the national debt that my mind can't seem to fully grasp it. The economic recovery money has so many loop-holes, and other skull-daggery, that no one seems to be able to access it. The jobs that are to be created are for government workers, who will track the activities of other fellow citizens. The majority of workers will be tuned into your health care, and the subsequent violations, so that your "real time" checking account can be accessed for your own good, and is a part of this law that only the computer picked up, as the human authors haven't read it yet. Like our esteemed Speaker of the House stated, let's pass this historic bill through, and then we can read it.

I believe that is why the Tea Bag party will be successful. I also think I may be a "Tea-Bagger," even in all its derogatory lingo. I think I'm more of a Lincoln Republican, and that may be why I will vote for anyone but the incumbent. I wonder, how many folks know that in this area of Susquehanna County we are the ancestors of some very important men, and they come complete with monuments, that helped form the Republican party?

Men like Judge Jessup, Gulasha Grow, David Wilmot and many others who helped get Mr. Lincoln elected. As with all new things, a few bugs need to be worked out. I think they will be. After all, I hear the cause is to bring some common-sense back into elected positions, and I love the idea of no life time benefit package for the politician. Let them get the COBRA that they think is so good.

And go to the Tea Party in Great Bend. Sounds like an idea whose time has come.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Allen

Summersville, PA

God Help Us

Greedy, Godless men are at the helm of America. Their primary concern is the management of all of our money and resources to grow their technology. They do not care about the human family, created in the image and likeness of God. Just remember Obama’s first act as president was to rescind the Mexican Agreement which prohibited tax dollars for hundreds of millions of abortions over seas. The continued collapse of the moral order in those countries around the world is what we face in American unless we exclude all provisions in the National Health Care for funding abortions of any kind. There are thousands of men and women crying for children and they want to adopt. With natural family planning and advancements in medical technology, there is no excuse for abortion.

Abe Lincoln said: America is the last best hope on Earth. We had a civil war to end slavery, today we need an educational campaign to end abortion and restore the public dignity of all God’s children, from conception to natural death. It is our constitutional duty; abortion is a grave miscarriage of justice that is destroying the Earth. We must show our children love and mercy and denounce abortion, the most grave evil of all, the destruction of our own flesh.

Sincerely,

John Mann

Susquehanna, PA

The Truth At Last

Finally, someone's got to the bottom of the drilling controversy. Dr. Michael Economides, editor-in-chief of the Energy Tribune and professor at the Cullen College of Engineering exposes the real problem with gas drilling and it's not the drillers.

Dr. Economides writes, “There is a vicious war being waged against the public interest by environmental groups. In particular, attacks on the natural gas production process known as hydraulic fracturing.”

He continues: “two notable lies about hydraulic fracturing have been widely spread. The first is that natural gas infiltrates drinking water aquifers. The second is that chemicals mixed with fracturing fluids will contaminate the same drinking water.”

Addressing the first problem, drinking water, he states “I have worked in the field of hydraulic fracturing for more than 25 years. I can say with confidence that these lies [about water contamination] are especially deceptive.”

Further, he claims, “contamination [of water by drilling] is virtually impossible.”

Why, then, are 14 families in Dimock suing Cabot Gas Company for contaminating their wells with heavy metals, methane, and other pollutants? And why are eighteen other families in that community saying they can no longer drink their water?

It can only be from natural seepage, Dr. Economides would answer, not from the drilling. The connection between drilling and widespread contamination in Dimock is coincidental.

Curiously, 13 families in Lenox are suing Southwestern Energy Company for the same reason - drilling followed by contamination - with many of the same contaminants in their well water as in Dimock's: toxic levels of barium, manganese, and strontium.

Again, Dr Economides would point out that it is not caused by drilling but by natural seepage - if not a conspiracy of, in his word, “lies.”

Yet this same association of drilling followed by pollution of wells can be told in many counties: Bradford, Washington, Potter, Allegheny plus more than ten other counties with a dozen or more residents in each county complaining of cloudy, foamy water with a foul taste and odor that appeared after gas drilling.

Since contamination caused by drilling is “virtually impossible,” it must be from natural seepage and coincidence.

More coincidences? Apparently so. But the number of coincidences themselves are also a coincidence, according to Dr. Economides.

The second “lie” writes Dr. Economides “is that chemicals mixed with fracturing fluids will contaminate drinking water. [These] chemicals are few in number and are not threatening.”

The professor is correct. Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection counts a mere 78 chemicals in fracking fluid, not hundreds or thousands.

But are they, as he writes, “not threatening?” Well, to name but a few, if one considers glycol-ethers, toluene, 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethanol, nonylphenols, 2,2-Dibromo-3-Nitrilopropionamide, 2-methyl-4-isothiazoline-3-one, 5-chloro-2-methethy-4-isothiazoline, tetramethy ammonium chloride, to be “not threatening,” then the professor is correct once again.

“What is more,” he continues, “the damage to the U.S. supply of energy is enormous.”

Indeed, natural gas is important. It supplies 20 percent of the nation's energy. In 1995, 32 trillion cubic feet were consumed. However, fourteen years later, only 22.8 trillion cubic feet were used, a decrease of 29 percent. This decline is more drastic when one considers that during this period the population rose 20 percent. The price also fell from $11/1,000 cubic feet to its current $3.50 to $4.50.

All of which indicates there is a glut of natural gas. Nevertheless, according to the editor of the Energy Tribune, we could always use more.

Added to Dr. Economides' list of adversaries are gadflies like Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, professor of engineering at Cornell University. Dr. Ingraffea was one of the first to be granted a PhD in rock fracturing 33 years ago. He is a pioneer in hydro fracking research. Someone is very, very wrong here, either the editor of the Energy Tribune or the fracking expert, Dr. Ingraffea. (View his informative videos on youtube.)

Lastly, there is the unavoidable suspicion that one who is editor-in-chief of a pro-mining and drilling publication is biased. True, the last place one would find an article critical of gas drilling is in such a magazine. But does that mean he is biased?

So the real problem, as Dr. Economides explains, is not with the gas drillers but with others whose radical views about pure water, clean air, and responsible land use have created a controversy and fueled it with environmentalists, lies, conspiracies, deceptions, gadflies, and, oh yes, those pesky coincidences.

Thank you, Dr. Economides. Now we know better.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA


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Thank you, Susquehanna County Transcript


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