By John Fett
Roseburg
The World editorial about maintaining civil discourse was brought to my attention, along with another opinion written by Mark Wall. First, I want to thank the paper for making the right decision not to publish an ad depicting the Salem anti-LNG protesters as unpatriotic because one guy was standing on a flag.
Second, I want the pro-gas boosters to know that many of the people attending the Salem rally are veterans like me who fought for the right to petition the government for redress against grievances.
As for Mr. Wall, there is nothing patriotic about allowing a foreign company to export fracked American gas to Asia. Especially, when that gas comes at the expense of the health of American people living near the fracking fields. There is nothing patriotic about letting a foreign company use Eminent Domain to take private property from US citizens to benefit foreign shareholders.
A fellow Marine Corps veteran has owned his property in Douglas County for three decades. It took years for the government to admit his health problems were caused by Agent Orange. Now Jordan Cove and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline want to take his land and spray it with herbicides. There is nothing patriotic about what the Jordan Cove LNG project plan to do to this Vietnam veteran.
Samuel Johnson once said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
It is time we standup for our right to be the decision makers and stop leaving our future up to a handful of Washington bureaucrats, foreign corporations and local special interests.
This is why I joined the community rights movement and why I support our right to local self-government.
Visit CoosCommons.org or facebook.com/cooscommons
“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change,” the pope declared, as he blasted a system of unbridled capitalism across the planet that “has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”
He continued, “This system is by now intolerable: farm workers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable. The earth itself – our sister, Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable.”
Thank you Mr. Fett!