◼ Time for honesty in government - Times-Standard
POSTED: 10/08/2013 01:59:59 AM PDT
UPDATED: 10/08/2013 02:00:00 AM PDT
I recently read in the Times-Standard that in a Central Valley town citizens can no longer drink their own tap water due to contamination from agricultural run-off. Interestingly, the Times-Standard has not bothered to cover a similar situation here in Humboldt Country, where residents on the South Fork of the Eel River can no longer use their water source due to contamination from beef cattle brought in to graze on property upriver from their homes.
Moreover, our Board of Supervisors wants to open up property in flood plains to development, which will inevitably lead to yet another example of the public picking up the tab for emergency services so that private property owners can increase their short-term profits.
Meanwhile the House of Representatives wants to cut the food stamp program for the poor (one out of every seven people in the U.S.) but does nothing to stop multi-million-dollar handouts to corporate farmers.
Isn't it time to bring more honesty to the discussion of who exactly is sucking on whose teat?
Richard W. Salzman
Arcata
