To the editor:
I have to agree with Denny York regarding the recent SDN editorial expressing “sadness” and “embarrassment” that no local officials showed up for a plant tour by Sen. Sherrod Brown recently. The whole editorial was politically naïve. Local council and commission positions are part time. Many of these people hold down full- or part-time jobs or farm. They cannot always just run when the latest politician shows up.
Having worked in the district office of a U.S. congressman, I know the reality is these folks show up for two reasons. They want their name fresh in local voters’ minds for the next election, and they want to make business contacts for future large campaign donations. This is a year-round reality. They want to be re-elected.
That is not to say the local legislators are without issue. But it would serve us all better if you asked why, when three of us polled local legislators a couple years ago, not one was familiar with UN Agenda 21. The UN believes property should not be owned by citizens, but by government or the UN. Many in D.C. have signed on to support ending property rights. While some towns have voted to pass no legislation, which would infringe on the property rights of their citizens, their local counterparts have taken no such action.
A few years ago, then-commissioners gave the OK to a developer to plot 80 lots and advertise them in SDN. Problem was, no one did the homework to find the sewage plant they wanted to tie into was under EPA scrutiny for discharging sewage into Brush Creek. If neighbors had not raised the issue and called the EPA, no one would have discovered the land on which the at-capacity plant sat was deemed by engineers too small to accommodate any future expansion. (More than) 100 homeowners could have been sitting with homes tied to a sewage plant the EPA would have shut down.
If you want to be angry, make it something that really matters, that really affects local citizens. Ask if local council or commission members are doing the homework on issues up for vote, or just rubber stamping. Attend and see if anyone is sleeping during meetings, which I observed more than once.
I am glad to see the SDN getting back to a full paper.
Linda Weber
Sidney
