Highlanders:
Time for one of my Weekend Edition rants. Please take special notice to Jeff Tittel’s OpEd, “Tea Party trashing NJ with anti-environmental agenda used by Gov. Christie” and “Maine Gov. LePage: Loosen rules on environment” and “Paul LePage, new Maine guv, takes aim at the environment” as they all point out a disturbing trend of late: weakening regulations in the name of “smaller government” and “economic growth.” Even the the Kate Shepard piece, “Gingrich Warns Of ‘Job-Killing Nature of the EPA’” points to this trend at a broader, national level.
What would Christie, LePage, Gingrich, et al prefer, worship of the almighty dollar in an unregulated “people-killing” society? Our laws and regulations guarantee us that corporate greed and excessive profits for a select few will not have a deleterious effect on the health, safety and well-being of the majority. The very foundations of our freedoms – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and the guarantee that all men and women are created equal – are reinforced by necessary laws and regulations. Religious freedom; freedom from discrimination based upon race, religion, or sexual orientation; freedom to assemble; freedom of speech; voting rights; child labor laws; clean air and water; healthy foods and drugs; job safety; the list goes on. But none of these laws or regulations guarantees individuals or corporations (who are now considered individuals I guess thanks to the US Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” ruling) the right of unlimited power and profits at the expense of their neighbors, or society in general.
We cannot afford to sit idly and watch the threads of this fabric being cut one by one, as the end result will be an uncontrolled unraveling of the cloth of that is the quality of our lives. The FIRST place YOU can take action against this trend is to click here and first thing on Monday morning, call members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and tell them to vote NO on the appointments of Sam Race and Rich Vohden to the Highlands Council. Tell them that the approval of the appointments of these two men is inappropriate, considering they both oppose the rights of the majority of the public – as determined by an overwhelming majority vote in both houses of our state government – which are being entrusted to them as members of the Highlands Council.
Take a moment to do this on Monday morning, or you will have nobody to blame but yourselves if this frightening trend of deregulation – and the ensuing loss of our protections here in the Highlands – continues and accelerates.