GE Aviation on the Joint Strike Fighter
Stephanie Kraft’s recent column mischaracterizes the GE/Rolls-Royce engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as one with only parochial benefits (“Saner than Boehner,” March 10, 2011). In fact, the engine program garners bipartisan support because the competition it provides is expected to save American taxpayers $21 billion, according to the independent Government Accountability Office. It doesn’t get much “saner” than that.
The JSF is expected to make up 90 percent of our fighter fleet, and, if Kraft has it her way, Congress will hand a $100 billion monopoly to Pratt and Whitney to power the entire fleet for the next 30 years. Monopolies never benefit the customer—and this is surely no exception: Pratt and Whitney’s engine already faces $3.5 billion in cost overruns.
Meanwhile, GE/Rolls-Royce’s engine is a “near model program” by the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee’s standards.
There are certainly jobs at stake—in Ohio and elsewhere. But the real reason the competitive GE/Rolls-Royce engine is necessary is that it makes sure taxpayers are receiving the very best engines for the very best prices. Eliminating the competition for this critical program would be—quite simply—insane.
Rick Kennedy
Manager, Media Relations
GE Aviation, Cincinnati
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DCR: Deaf to Public Opinion
As some honest state bureaucrat might tell you, the only thing wrong with “public participation” is the public. Take the Quabbin Reservoir as an example. It is the very best area in central Massachusetts for the establishment of a biosphere reserve, yet it is being “managed” (i.e. abused) for timber by clear-cutting, in some cases right down to the water’s edge. In the last 10 years it has been butchered using the worst kind of slob forestry imaginable: clear-cutting.
The Quabbin watershed is being systematically deforested, and the plan is to continue this destruction. Instead it should be managed, if at all, for very long-rotation mature, over-mature and old growth forest establishment. This administration is selling off our public jewels for pennies on the dollar to their friends as political favors. The people need to take back our public lands from these inept politicos. We need an Egyptian revolution in the spirit of Daniel Shays, whose homestead is on the Prescott Peninsula, but you and I can’t even walk there because it’s “protected,” while those with industrial logging equipment have free run of the entire watershed. Join Mass Forest Watch and get involved. The revolution is coming!
Glen Ayers
Online comment
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Workers Unite!
This letter is specifically written for those of you who are angry about the “big” salaries and “huge” pensions of government workers. Certainly you have a right to be, and in fact you should be, angry. It is just that your anger is misplaced.
Why are you angry with people who are working hard and struggling to make a decent living? Why do you want to pull them down? So the wealthy can then (again) take more of what you have so you can be angry at other workers and demand they give up more so you can race to the bottom? Does this make sense? Is this really the direction you want to go?
Then demand that these workers get their rights and what is due them and you, too! Let’s raise each other up! Who benefits if our wages, pensions and other benefits go down? And who is hurt?
Angry? Good, but why not focus on the true cause of your problems? It is not your fellow workers, no matter what industry they are in. No, it is the CEOs, corporations, bankers, hedge funders, et al. who have created the largest theft of funds from the middle class to the wealthy at any time in history. While these people are making out like bandits, becoming multi-millionaires and billionaires, they are still not satisfied and want to take every last crumb. They and their media stooges, the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Becks, et al., along with the Bachmanns, Palins, Baucuses, Nelsons and McConnells, just to name a few, are the puppets the wealthy use to stir us up against our own interests.
If the workers of this country do not stand together and demand their rights and a fair share, trust me, no one else will. Especially Bill O’Reilly, ’cause he’s looking out for his bank account, not you!
Jaffrey Harp
Northfield
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Meatout for Lent
Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter when Catholics and other Christians would abstain from meat and dairy products in remembrance of Jesus’ 40 days of fast and prayer before dying on the cross. Most Catholics still observe meatless Fridays during Lent.
Today, meatless Lent brings the additional benefits of reducing chronic diseases, environmental degradation, and animal abuse. It’s a great opportunity to explore the delicious and healthful meat and dairy alternatives in our local supermarket.
Those needing additional reinforcement can look forward to March 20, the first day of spring, and the Great American Meatout. Now in its 27th year, Meatout has grown into the world’s largest annual grassroots diet education campaign, with a thousand educational events in all 50 states and 32 countries.
Eddie Buster
Easthampton
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Getting On Track With High-Speed Rail
We actually do need high-speed rail investment, or at least investment in regular-speed trains, including putting those trains downtown and not next to back alleys [“Biden’s Bad Transit Bet,” March 10, 2011]. Part of why the Northeast Corridor works well is that all major cities in the Northeast have a train station near their major business districts or access via existing local transit. The glaring exception may be Baltimore, which while connected to downtown via light rail has really long headways.
In many cities, light rail (or even better, heavy rail to actually move populations in dense areas) would be more important than high speed. However, in cities even as big as Springfield and as small as Northampton light rail will cost way too much to be beneficial.
That brings us back to intercity rail. In some places where your train takes you nowhere (see Windsor Locks’ Amtrak station), it will never make a difference. However, a regularly scheduled trip between Springfield and Greenfield may attract some passengers or maybe some people from Hartford or below. As for high-speed rail, its need is greatest where the density exists. The Midwest Hub or New York’s Empire corridor are good examples, as well as pockets of California and Florida. However, elsewhere, the investment may not return what we expect.
Also, remember that railroads went to hell in part because they had completely alienated their customer base. For years they had treated passengers much like the airlines do now. However, unlike railroads, airlines don’t have any technologically superior competitor. Roads are not necessary more efficient; it is just that we have built our society around them so much that outside of the Northeast it is difficult to justify any other alternative.
Matt Szafranski
Online comment
