Letters: Oil's out in the Gulf ripe for the picking

The Republican Editorials By The Republican Editorials
on July 04, 2010 at 12:11 AM, updated July 04, 2010 at 8:19 AM
Gulf Oil SpillTar balls, brown foam, and oily residue washes ashore on the beach along US 90 in Gulfport, Miss., on Tuesday, June 29, 2010. MISSISSIPPI PRESS OUT (AP Photo/The Sun Herald, Drew Tarter)

Oil’s out in the Gulf ripe for the picking
Let me get this straight. There is 2.5 million gallons of oil gushing daily into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil is selling for $76 a barrel. Gulf waters are public domain.

Wow! We need private enterprise: a floating container with a suction system and a ready buyer at the market price. It’s kind of like ‘pick -your-own strawberries at 25 cents a basket.

Beware! There are powers that may steal your strawberries.


Obama was elected to fix our problems

Those of us who have found Obama to be a disappointing leader are not hypocrites.

Obama did not create the problems he “inherited”. He was supposed to fix them. His high-price stimulus has done nothing to create jobs. The only jobs saved have been government or union jobs. President George W. Bush put us into debt, but Obama has made it far worse.

Obama did not start the wars. The withdrawal in Iraq was signed, sealed, and delivered before he took office. The war in Iraq has been won. It is his war to lose now. The president chose to escalate the war in Afghanistan. It is now his to win or lose.

Perhaps it is Obama who is the hypocrite? He has chosen Bush’s general, David Petraeus, and is using Bush’s strategy in an attempt to win in Afghanistan. Ironic isn’t it?

Obama’s response to the Gulf crisis has been appalling. Nobody expects him to “sip up the oil with a straw.” He cannot stop the oil from gushing out. Instead, he turned a deaf ear to Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. It has taken him over two months to allow other countries in to help.

The president did nothing to prevent the oil from reaching shore. Instead, he is using this crisis as an opportunity to push an agenda. If this is an “intelligent” man showing “good leadership”, Heaven help us if another crisis emerges.

I’m afraid the only hypocrites I see are the ones who for years bashed Bush yet fail, or refuse, to see Obama’s lack of leadership and failure to make good decisions. In that respect, I see no difference between the Bush supporters and the Obama supporters.

East Longmeadow

GOP’s real client is big business
A June 30 article by the Associated Press stated that Republicans harbored concerns about growing national debt and therefore rejected a House bill to extend unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed.

While frequently frothing about the tribulations of small business, the party’s true client is big business, those corporate entities that were ruled to be “persons” under the 14th amendment (Santa Rosa County v So. Pac RR, 1886) by the Supreme Court.

A good Republican, Abraham Lincoln had something to say about labor and capital in his annual message to congress December 3, 1861, to wit: “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other right.”

So, why shouldn’t capital suffer the economic consequences of the capitalist system and not labor?


Why does waitstaff have to share tips?
Our family went out to eat recently at a local establishment. It was quite busy.

We could see our server running around and making sure customers got their food as soon as it went up, apologizing for delays in the kitchen etc. We all understood that it was not under her control and that her service was dependent on many other factors.

I was very shocked to learn that our server had to give a percentage of her tips to the bartender that made our drinks and the hostess whose only duties were to seat people. If I wanted to tip the bartender I would have done so. I do not feel that the person who seats your party is entitled to a tip at all. I left a tip for the server and the server only. Servers make much less than minimum wage and depend on tips to get close to making minimum wage or more.

Nickel and diming servers to death and taking bites from their excessively low wages have resulted in a huge disparity against women who make up the majority of servers.

Being a server is not only for high school graduates or for college kids picking up a few bucks during their off time. Some servers are working full time at one job and part time at another and support a family on those wages.

I resent that the restaurant decides to give a tip intended for the server to bartenders and hostesses. It is high time that the state law be eliminated in the case where the issue of waitstaff, service employees, servers, hostesses are concerned. I propose that waitstaff, servers, bartenders, hostesses make minimum wage and keep their own tips. I defy anyone to live on the wages that servers now enjoy.


Enjoy the outdoors, it’s good for you
A discussion of the environmental issues related to health, safety, sustainability and other practical issues should persuade people to see the good of environmentalism.

Sadly, this is not the case.

People might see things differently if they just took the time to go for a walk in the woods, though this is increasingly a rare opportunity in suburbia.

If they did, they would find an even more obvious reason to conserve and preserve nature: It’s good for their own well-being and makes life more livable.

Cancer research is increasingly finding a link between healing and exposure to calming natural surroundings. Observing the complex symmetry of untouched nature has been healing to me and everyone I know who has had the chance to experience it on a regular basis.

Why do people in New York City seem so uptight? Why do people who live in rural areas seem more relaxed? Could it be at least partially due to the fact that they are more exposed to nature?

This topic is often downplayed by environmentalists, but though it might be less relevant to them, it is more relevant to everyone else.

People who favor unbridled development and the destruction of wildlife might deny this near-spiritual nature that can be found in even the smallest bit of wilderness in suburbia. But these people cannot find a livable life in their contradictory beliefs. They do not allow themselves to enjoy nature in its most psychologically and physically, wholly, or spiritually soothing state – its most symmetrical, most untouched, most wild form.