Letters, 7/11: Consider all the options
Both sides of the partisan divide need to wake up and recognize what is best for our country and not the party. I am a Democrat who is becoming more conservative as I get older, but I won’t vote Republican yet.
We need to look again at nuclear power and offshore drilling. Before we open any more offshore drilling, we must demand to know why the oil companies are not drilling on the 68 million acres of leases they already own on federal lands. The portion that would be open to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is only about three square miles in footprint, but we should monitor drilling closely, because I don’t trust the energy companies.
Nuclear has made many advances in the past 30 years, and the only place it shouldn’t be used is the West Coast because of earthquakes. Again, we monitor them closely, because I don’t trust these people one bit.
We need to move beyond NIMBY and make a lot of hard choices. Yes, we have to do wind, solar and all the others. Coal-to-gas needs to be explained better, because right now it doesn’t sound like a good thing to me from an environmental impact point of view.
Jeff Stone, Lincoln
Clean up trash in town
The call for a cleanup of the trash on our streets and in the parks needs more emphasis, more drive, more energy. Someone needs to head it up and keep it before the public.
I have been picking up trash about four days a week on the bike trail and especially out of the lakes and waterway between Pine Lake Road and Old Cheney Road. I take out two to three grocery bags full each time.
Our waterways are floating with plastic bags, chip bags, snack wrappers, cans, beer bottles and plastic water bottles, to mention a few of the items. Our lake shores have this debris floating around the edges. Even now there is an area in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas that is solid with floating plastic stuff.
We are drowning our community and the planet in our wastefulness. Folks must be more careful to secure their trash in proper bins, and for heaven’s sake recycle everything possible. In the complex where I live, the dumpster bins are full of furniture, beer cans and so much that can be reused or recycled.
A decade ago we fought for recycling, realizing that our planet is not our trash can. I hope we keep that awareness alive and keep our environment alive and clean!
The Rev. Carole M. Lunde, Lincoln
Tax cut = more revenue
I read the following in the Saturday Journal Star: “Despite historic tax rate cuts passed in 2007, the cash reserve will be $574 million this summer as the state begins a new fiscal year, more than double the 2006 level.”
This is just another example of the economic ignorance of today’s society. And it is so nice to see this ignorance perpetuated by journalists.
Why is it such a surprise that a cut in tax rates would lead to an increase in revenue? Since the early 1970s this economic principle has been popularized as the Laffer Curve. It is also a principle that has been noted for centuries across many cultures.
Kevin Van Cott, Lincoln
We need to look again at nuclear power and offshore drilling. Before we open any more offshore drilling, we must demand to know why the oil companies are not drilling on the 68 million acres of leases they already own on federal lands. The portion that would be open to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is only about three square miles in footprint, but we should monitor drilling closely, because I don’t trust the energy companies.
Nuclear has made many advances in the past 30 years, and the only place it shouldn’t be used is the West Coast because of earthquakes. Again, we monitor them closely, because I don’t trust these people one bit.
We need to move beyond NIMBY and make a lot of hard choices. Yes, we have to do wind, solar and all the others. Coal-to-gas needs to be explained better, because right now it doesn’t sound like a good thing to me from an environmental impact point of view.
Jeff Stone, Lincoln
Clean up trash in town
The call for a cleanup of the trash on our streets and in the parks needs more emphasis, more drive, more energy. Someone needs to head it up and keep it before the public.
I have been picking up trash about four days a week on the bike trail and especially out of the lakes and waterway between Pine Lake Road and Old Cheney Road. I take out two to three grocery bags full each time.
Our waterways are floating with plastic bags, chip bags, snack wrappers, cans, beer bottles and plastic water bottles, to mention a few of the items. Our lake shores have this debris floating around the edges. Even now there is an area in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas that is solid with floating plastic stuff.
We are drowning our community and the planet in our wastefulness. Folks must be more careful to secure their trash in proper bins, and for heaven’s sake recycle everything possible. In the complex where I live, the dumpster bins are full of furniture, beer cans and so much that can be reused or recycled.
A decade ago we fought for recycling, realizing that our planet is not our trash can. I hope we keep that awareness alive and keep our environment alive and clean!
The Rev. Carole M. Lunde, Lincoln
Tax cut = more revenue
I read the following in the Saturday Journal Star: “Despite historic tax rate cuts passed in 2007, the cash reserve will be $574 million this summer as the state begins a new fiscal year, more than double the 2006 level.”
This is just another example of the economic ignorance of today’s society. And it is so nice to see this ignorance perpetuated by journalists.
Why is it such a surprise that a cut in tax rates would lead to an increase in revenue? Since the early 1970s this economic principle has been popularized as the Laffer Curve. It is also a principle that has been noted for centuries across many cultures.
Kevin Van Cott, Lincoln
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