Teaching kids the wrong way on politics
I seriously question what we are teaching our young generation when the townspeople storm town meetings for one reason only, run for elected positions for one reason only and promote a negative spin on natural gas based on undocumented information.
When New York approves gas activities, including hydrofracking, our town is going to tell its land owners they cannot participate! Wow! What happened to landowners rights?
How can our small town have the technical resources to make a drastic decision like this, especially when our environmental regulatory agencies have been working for a few years on this critical issue.
Are those of us that are looking at factual/documented/scientific information supposed to keep paying our taxes, wonder what the town will hand down next and keep quiet?
That is the message I have gleaned from many local meetings I have attended on this issue.
I think we are sending a message to our youth that it is OK to disregard our laws and disregard documented/scientific information, while at the same time storm our election process and town board for something they should not even be in the middle of.
I have one additional question.
Has or hasn't our governments, with the authority they have empowered our regulatory agencies with over the past few decades, not cleaned up our environment significantly?
I don't see how you can say no to that. In light of our environmental regulatory agencies' performance to date, our town board is telling us that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would allow the gas industry to pollute our water and ruin our environment. Wow!
We need to guide our youth to work with facts rather than spin.
Bruce Beckert
Town of Butternuts
