Republicans haven't limited government
To elaborate further on my May 16 letter: I was hard on the GOP and Tea Party conservatives for one reason. While I don't like the Democratic Party, it at least doesn't make pretense at favoring limited government, while government doesn't seem to get smaller. It's interesting that from 1953-2008, there was a Republican administration in office 65 percent of the time. Yet the state didn't shrink. If anything, it got bigger. In those 36 total years, just how did Washington manage to keep right on inserting itself into our daily lives? Just what do we think limited government is then? In the political sense, anyway, the concept of limitation doesn't bear much resemblance to a dictionary definition. That's why I really think taking back the country is a disingenuous movement. Just like last year's net site blackout, we seem to only take it so far. We need to thank the founding generation for not stopping at just throwing some tea in the water. But to get to the basic dynamics of this issue, there will never be limited government till we develop a healthy and sustained fear of it, simply because we actively work to at least contain those things we know to be destructive to persons and property. In fact, that's a sound and timeless principle to frame on a wall, wear on a shirt, or tattoo on an arm: "Always fear your government."
What it all boils down to is we must eventually put up or shut up about limited government. Then we can either keep living a fantasy until we turn into a Greece or Spain, or somehow find the courage to back up our brave words by leaving the federal nest. It's as simple as that, really.
Robert Olejarz
Sidney
Fracking issues same across the nation
I mailed copies of the documentary "Gasland" out in my Christmas cards last year to friends and relatives across our great country.
In the process of fighting hydrofracking, I have lost and gained friends and relatives because of the stand I have taken. I thought this was the case with my dear friend since grade school.
I was wrong! Last week I received an envelope packed full of articles from across Colorado. Any one of the articles could have been pulled from our papers here on the East Coast. All of them had the keywords attached to fracking: lawsuit, moratorium, ban, pipelines, property values, over-usage of water and roads, water, air and soil contamination.
To my beloved friend in Loveland, Colo., I pray for you and your family because your elected officials have let the fracking genie that belongs to the oil and gas industry out of the bottle. To my state of New York, please take notice and ban hydrofracking.
We as a nation need to ask ourselves how much longer will we let our government do this to us and our beautiful nation.
Tammy Reiss
Unadilla
