Double Edge’s Odyssey
I was pleased and gratified to read Chris Rohmann’s account of several local artists creating sets and large-scale art installations for Double Edge Theatre’s Odyssey in “Wool Sails in the Sunset,” August 4, 2011. I remember his visit to the farm, a particularly active day, happily a-buzz with people making things and rehearsing scenes. I wish to make one correction on his piece: local multimedia artist and art educator Rachel Silverman is responsible for the design of the paintings depicting Odysseus’s Ithaca palace, and we both worked as a team to supervise other painters and make aesthetic decisions along the way.
Hayley Wood
Northampton
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Must Save Water
As hot and dry weather continues throughout Massachusetts, I urge the public to comply with any local restrictions on outdoor water use and to voluntarily conserve water whenever possible.
These conditions dramatically increase water consumption, which can severely stress a community’s limited water resources and threaten uninterrupted service to homes and businesses.
Furthermore, maintaining adequate, reliable water supplies is essential for fighting fires and protecting public safety, a fact not widely understood by many consumers.
Sufficient, available water pressure and supply can mean the difference between a small fire and a major inferno.
In addition, the risk of brush and forest fires increases in hot, dry weather, compounding the importance of having ample water supplies on hand for fire suppression.
The National Weather Service is forecasting the possibility of further periods of hot weather during the remainder of the summer. As a result, local water departments need the cooperation of the public in conserving water indoors and outdoors in the coming weeks so they can provide uninterrupted delivery of tap water and crucial fire protection throughout their service area.
To learn more about what tap water delivers, visit www.newwa.org or contact your local water utility.
Raymond J. Raposa
Executive Director
New England Water Works Association
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Nuclear Power: Quaker Meeting to Governor
Dear Governor Patrick:
We appreciate your administration’s efforts to protect our commonwealth from the dangers of nuclear power. In particular, we are grateful for Attorney General Martha Coakley’s filing of a brief to support Vermont in response to Entergy’s lawsuit to keep Vermont Yankee operating for another 20 years.
As Quakers, we are spiritually called to live in right relationship with all creation, recognizing that the entire world is interconnected. Our view of the current state of nuclear technology, along with its impact and risks for people and the earth, leads us to urge extreme caution in extending the life of aging nuclear power generating plants. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, caused by loss of power and failure of backup systems, our concerns are only heightened.
Living in Western Massachusetts just downstream from the Vermont Yankee reactor, we are deeply aware that the generation of nuclear power, and especially the spent fuel pools of old design that are filled with decades’ worth of dangerous radioactive materials stored on the bank of the Connecticut River, put us at serious risk. In addition, this plant has a history of major failures, including a collapsed cooling tower, a fire, and multiple leaks. Despite this history, federal regulators have not adequately addressed these issues and chose to approve relicensing.
Governor Patrick, we appeal to you to use the power of your office to protect and secure our environment. Please put in place monitoring of the Connecticut River and groundwater, and make public the effects of this plant on the environment. We ask you to make the safety of Massachusetts residents a priority. We also ask that you do everything you can to see that Vermont Yankee is safely decommissioned in 2012, and to prevent the Pilgrim reactor from being relicensed. Letting go of old nuclear technology can be an opportunity to increase truly renewable sources of energy.
Northampton Friends Meeting
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America More Than an Economic System
The writer of a recent letter stated, and I quote, “Capitalism made America the greatest country in the history of the world.” This is so erroneous that I cannot let it go by without comment. Capitalism is an economic system and, like other systems, has its advantages and disadvantages.
Let us put aside for a moment the true, real and tangible ideals, ideas, and people that actually make the country work. How can a system that leaves millions destitute, impoverished, living in ghettos while a few wallow in unimaginable wealth, be what makes us great? You know what would be great? If everyone had their basic needs met; if we cared about each other; if we could find meaning from our relationships, work and everyday lives; if we could build communities that support and care for all; if we put our resources into creating life-sustaining alternatives; if our politicians and policymakers made decisions based on the common good rather than how it can be more profitable for a few; and this is just for starters.
This country was not founded on capitalism but on freedom, justice and the common welfare. It is democracy and our democratic principles which could make this country great. It is the blood, sweat and tears of millions upon millions of everyday people who could make this country great. This country will never be great as long as it is based on a system that rewards the greedy, selfish, megalomaniac and sociopathic individuals who have climbed to the top on the worldwide misery of hundreds of millions.
Power is not what makes a country great, no matter how much power it has. It is wisdom, compassion and freedom that make a country great.
Jahfree Harp
Northfield
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Conservative to Conservatives: Don’t Bash Tea Party
Now is not the time for recriminations against Tea Party-backed members of Congress who voted in the end for the debt deal. This is not the time to start fighting amongst ourselves. Nothing could make the Left happier than to see a splintering of the Tea Party movement.
We have to agree that, no matter how disappointed we are with the final deal—and I am—that final vote was something on which honest conservatives could disagree.
The President used his bully pulpit to argue that the Tea Party was leading the nation to Armageddon, and the compliant media acted as a thousand megaphones for that line. It is understandable that some Tea Party conservatives thought this would not help the Tea Party’s standing with the public.
There have been good and bad actors on both sides of the debt ceiling debate.
Let’s leave the recriminations to the liberals and stay united and focused on achieving the real spending cuts that Congress promised and electing a President and Congress to support, rather than fight, a balanced budget amendment and other limited government principles.
That is what we should be concentrating on, starting today.
Richard A. Viguerie
Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Manassas, Va.
