Letters 11/17/05

No more King Oil
Driving an SUV makes you a coward and a traitor. Coward, because you need massive force to feel safe on the road. Traitor, because your countrymen are dying for the gasoline you squander.
The U.S and Israeli armed forces are in the Middle East to conclude a business deal begun in 1946. They destabilize the region so that death and weapons can be traded for crude oil. Scooter Libby knows this, and he will go to prison for lying to conceal this.
He is just one of a group of millionaires who conspire to create energy scarcity. Manipulating the price of oil and the design of homes and vehicles, they create overconsumption and dependence. This insures increased wealth and control flows to them.
Democracy requires democratic energy. No more King Oil, Prince Nuclear, or energy royalty of any kind. Decentralized, locally-controlled energy will support a country of equals, united. Let us become a nation of biodiesel councils, wind farm congresses, and ethanol commissions.

Eric Pyne • via email

Needed: Snow Relief
We live in an area plagued by a natural disaster called snow. Snow is a very inconvenient and heavy substance to remove, so why isn’t the government taking action to help us all with the problems caused by this natural phenomenon?
Thus, I suggest the creation of the national SRF (Snow Relief Fund)... I propose a $10,000 snow relief debit card and two National Guardsman armed with shovels for every American family that lives in these dreaded, dangerous, and blighted places.
I chose to live in the snow belt but isn’t it the government‘s responsiblity to make sure I am never under stress or inconvienced in any way? I feel this is the only fair way to go. If G.W. Bush has a weather machine that creates hurricanes to wipe out New Orleans and the surrounding areas, why can’t he plant one of them up here to create Hawaii type weather for us all year long?
We’ll accept snow on Christmas day and between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. when most people are asleep and won’t be bothered.
Oh, and by the way, please chopper us in some MRE’s (meals ready to eat) because I have a buyer on eBay that really needs the business.
Kevin Haugh • Lake Ann

For the birds
Be very afraid -- the chickens of mass destruction are threatening the American Way. Were it not for our steely eyed leader seizing the initiative we would be doomed! Luckily he will be fighting the bird flu over there so that we don‘t have to fight it here. Before we know it they will be laying eggs at our feet.

Gay Anderson • Mancelona

8 on a budget
I truly enjoyed the story about raising eight kids on a budget and can relate to the measures taken in those times. Particularly the powdered milk which is still stuck on my palate.
Anne Stanton (who wrote the story) might enjoy “The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio: How my Mother Raised 10 kids on 25 Words or Less.” Her mom would enjoy
it, too.
I grew up in Flushing, so I know all about Williams Gunsight she alluded to. I had five gravel pits behind my house. There were over 100 kids in the neighborhood and all the boys had BB guns. The frogs in the pits paid a price. Fortunately, there was a State Trooper in the neighborhood or the street lights would have gotten it.
Thanks for the flash on Memory Lane.

Tom Mountz • Honor

Endangered Act
Are you aware that the House of Representatives recently passed a bill to gut The Endangered Species Act? Representative Richard Pombo (R- Califomia) introduced the “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” (H.R. 3824), which drastically weakens the Act.
The original Act passed over 30 years ago has led to the protection and recovery of over 1,800 species. In Michigan some of the species protected are: gray wolf, Indiana bat, Canada lynx, bald eagle, Kirtland warbler, piping plover, copperbelly water snake, Hines emerald dragonfly, Kamer blue butterfly, dwarf lake iris, eastern prairie fringed orchid, etc....
Rep. Pombo’s new legislation introduced the following changes:
1. To abandon our national commitment to recovery of endangered and threatened wild life and wild lands.
2. Sharply diminishes habitat protection.
3. Eliminates ability to protect wildlife from harmful pesticides.
4. Cuts wildlife experts out of the dialogue.
5. Severely weakens scientific input and their expertise.
6. Makes the taxpayers pay developers to comply with the law.
7. Gives developers a free pass.
Regardless of where we live in Michigan or what we do for a living, we live in one of the most beautiful states and area in the world. With this in mind, it is our responsibility to protect the wild. We need to be the voice for the wildlife and the wild lands. Please contact our senators.

Joanne Cromley • Afton

No Bible basis to I.D.
I know scarecrows are popular this time of year, but I am not sure that fact alone can explain the straw men I have been seeing lately.
If we Intelligent Designer‘s truly believed what a recent column writer in the Northern Express says we do, there would be good reason to greet our arguments with derision. But that’s where the straw man comes in.
First of all, biblical theology is not the base of Intelligent Design theory. For those interested in getting the facts straight, visit the Discovery Institute’s web site and read the following petition, which to date 400 scientists have signed: “We are skeptical of the claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” The theology is overwhelming.
Certainly there are ID’ers who believe God created the world (Christians have an opinion on science? Oh, the horror!). However, proponents include Antony Flew, who was perhaps the world’s most famous atheist until the argument from design turned him to deism. But even among the leaders in the ID movement, I know of none who believe the earth is 5,000 years old, as a recent writer claimed. In fact, I don’t know of any creationist who believes the earth is 5,000 years old, which makes me wonder where the writer got his information. Most ID’ers endorse the traditional timeline of the earth’s history.
A recent writer suggested that the ID argument sinks because no intelligent designer would create the Black Plague, or Spanish Flu or AIDS. “Would Jesus give us the bird flu?” First, for the sake of the ID’ers who are not Christian, read the petition again. Second, one should actually know what the Bible says before offering opinions about it. The Bible claims that God created the world good, but that it is now in a fallen state. Evil, the absence or distortion of good, is now at play in the world, causing “all of creation to groan” as it waits in anticipation for a return to that original state. So, no, Ebola does not trump design.
Antony Flew cites his affinity with Einstein, who believed in “an Intelligence that produced the integrative complexity of creation.”
And as for the rest of us Design proponents whose names are not quite so recognizable, we have a simple request: Know what we actually promote and believe. You might be surprised.

Anthony Weber • TC

Ode to the Wolf Man
I am a big fan of your magazine. The “Wolfman of Brethren” articles compelled me to write the following poem:

“Wolf Man of Brethren”

A man with such convictions isn’t easy to
be found-
Rare is the person who firmly stands his ground.
You weren’t like the rest of us, but it’s still hard to understand,
how a man could be gunned down while protecting his own land.
You died trying to keep your “family”
from harm,
and now it’s eerily quiet on the Sutherland farm.
Your presence is felt even though you’re gone
and if you listen closely, just before dawn,
you can hear the cries of the ones left behind-
No solace for the beasts that have
continuously pined.
How tragic for them when they eventually learn
that the friend they miss will never return.
That bond can never be broken, though; the memories will never cease.
Wolf Man of Brethren, may you rest in peace.
The love you had for your creatures can never be denied-
Grizzly Man is waiting for you on the
other side.

Debbie Theakston • Lake Ann

Correction
Last week‘s cover offered “hoo-rah“ as the Marine Corps battle cry. An alert reader noted that it‘s actually “Oorah!“ as opposed to “Hooah!“ which is used by the U.S. Army. Altogether now: “Oorah!“

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