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EPA refutes Sowell’s column
Columnist Thomas Sowell’s Feb. 6 opinion piece, “EPA’s new regulations will cost much, serve little use,” gives readers the impression that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to regulate all small dairy farms as part of its work to prevent oil spills. This is incorrect.
EPA already has proposed to exclude milk and milk product storage tanks from the spill prevention regulatory program. This common-sense decision was announced months ago.
Moreover, EPA already has stayed any compliance requirements for milk and milk product storage tanks pending the agency’s final action on the proposed permanent exclusion. It is known that EPA will take final action on the proposed permanent exclusion this spring.
EPA stands with President Obama in his commitment to using common sense and transparency to review federal regulations. This commitment to transparency is precisely why EPA publicly announced its intention to delay compliance requirements for milk and milk product storage tanks in October 2010.
Reader cites lobbyist influence
After reading the Jan. 28 commentary “Commitment to job, not conflict, found on Capitol Hill,” some observations: Writer Jeffrey Brauer talks about how the news media thrives on conflict, sometimes creating or exaggerating it in order to sell their product, and how his most recent visit to Capitol Hill persuaded him that most members of Congress are just “trying to get the work done that the people sent them to do.”
While it is true that many media entities probably are guilty of creating or exaggerating conflict in their political reportage, another sin of the mainstream media that needs to be explored much further is the sin of omission.
I would have assumed, as a political science professor, Mr. Brauer would have understood the need to inform his students (and The Times Leader’s readers) in greater detail about the countless ways in which Big Money lobbyists for major corporations, the military-industrial complex and other powerful special interest groups have corrupted our democracy to the point that the needs of average working people, the poor, the uninsured, the homeless, the elderly, etc. (not to mention the critical ecological needs of our polluted environment and a planet in crisis) are forgotten in the mad rush of most elected officials to hurry up and raise money for the next election cycle.
Unfortunately, frequent brief visits to Washington, D.C., are not enough to show us what we need to know. And most of the news media in the last generation or so have been bought up by fewer and bigger corporate giants whose agenda apparently is this: make more money, faster and faster, and to hell with the public good.
Maybe if he checked with organizations such as Public Citizen and Common Cause, or independent media outlets such as Democracy Now!, Counterspin and Making Contact (all of which are broadcast regularly on Wilkes University radio WCLH, 90.7 FM), he would have had more useful insights to share with his students (and readers). A simple search of the Internet can find these and many other good organizations that are practicing excellence in journalism and participatory democracy.
If only more of our elected officials would put these principles into practice, instead of chasing after money and power, and sacrificing our democracy and our planet in the process.
Network combats pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cancer killer in the United States. Last year alone more than 43,000 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and of those nearly 37,000 died.
Pancreatic cancer remains the only major cancer with a single-digit, five-year survival rate at just 6 percent. This rate has not improved substantially over nearly 40 years.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, a national organization, is leading the way to increase the survival rates of people with this devastating disease by announcing The Vision of Progress: Double the Pancreatic Cancer Survival Rate by 2020. The organization is doubling its efforts to raise awareness, support patients and intensify advocacy for a national research strategy dedicated to finding a cure.
This initiative is important to me.
I lost my father 10 years ago to this disease. His symptoms, just like the majority of pancreatic cancer victims, were so common, my family and I would never have imagined he would be taken from us one month after he was given the diagnosis. The statistics must change!
To learn more about this initiative and how you can become involved in the fight against pancreatic cancer, please visit www.pancan.org.
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