Letter full of vitriol

It appears that Ms Harris is burning a full tank of vitriol. The multimillionaires, and no doubt generous political donors, who own the ocean front property in Florida and California have little concern about fuel prices. Many fill their Hummers and Escalades at the pump with their company credit cards. It’s far more beneficial to protect their views and possible oil spills on their private beach and preserve their multimillion dollar home values. So you can forget about drilling off shore from Florida and California. Drilling in ANWAR, though probably very profitable to those 7-figure oil execs, won’t influence oil prices by 3 cents. There are no known well reserves in the U.S. large enough to make up for foreign imports. I found Ms Harris’ comment about Saudi wisdom of drilling humorous. The oil in Saudi Arabia was drilled by U.S. oil companies; the Saudi’s have not made any major oil wells since they expelled the U.S. oil companies in 1980.

Proliferation of current nuclear fission plants still is faced with long-term construction, finding waterfront locations for the massive amounts of cooling water they need, uranium resource scarcity and disposal of spent fuel.

If Mr. Bush had any foresight whatsoever he would have established a Manhattan Project for finding an effective way to recover the trillion barrels of oil in our western oil shale instead of tasking our brightest and best to spend $100s of billions attempting to put a man on Mars. That project might be better left for communist China as they rise to world leadership thanks to unregulated U.S. credit spending and a devastating balance of trade (to say nothing about our devastated manufacturing base).

China has a net surplus of more than a trillion in mostly U.S. dollars and treasury notes to do the the job quite nicely. However, I suspect the Chinese are too practical to spend huge sums on a project with a zero benefit/cost ratio. If Mr. Bush had any foresight, he might have funded another massive project to shorten the 20-year timeframe to develop nuclear fusion power generation with no related prospect of fuel shortage and no nuclear waste disposal problem.

Since Michigan is the world epicenter for things automotive which represents 70 percent of our petroleum consumption, I don’t think the $2 billion grant to Michigan Universities for energy research is in any sense a pork-belly grant. Considering the magnitude of our energy problems and the implications for the survival of the U.S. on the world stage I would say its vast underfunding.

As for 7-figure executive salaries, they make great campaign fund supporters, but many aren’t any better leaders than our ignominious president. They just aren’t worth the 7 and, more often, 8 figures they’re paid. We would be far better off if instead of undermining engineering salaries in this country by importing foreign engineers we raised engineering salaries and promoted our homegrown engineers instead of companies paying ridiculous salaries and benefits to execs.

Engineers develop the technology that has made us a world leader and in the process create many, many jobs. If you haven’t noticed we’ve had a dramatic loss in our technology leadership and well paying jobs since 2000. I was an engineer for most of my working life, but I couldn’t in good conscience recommend that career path for young people today. Those high paid execs have created the pathetic “Dilbert” engineering work environment. If execs are motivated by high salaries how about raises for our engineers, teachers and nurses? — Dave Buckingham, Grand Blanc Twp.

Thanks to Board of Education

This past April, I attended the monthly Grand Blanc School Board meeting to address the board regarding the absence of a policy regarding movie rating guidelines for elementary age students.

My daughter had brought home a permission slip to watch a PG rated movie in kindergarten. When I called Superintendent Newton’s office, I was told the district did not have a G-only policy (or any policy) for elementary school. I then took my concern to the board to request a policy be put in place that only G-rated movies be shown in elementary school, or at least through second grade.

Prior to the end of the school year I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from Dr. Newton letting me know they set movie rating guidelines at all grade levels through high school. I am extremely thankful they responded so quickly and set a G-only policy for elementary-aged students (PG for middle school, and PG-13 for high school).

We are very fortunate to have a district that continues to focus on improving education and the environment which our children learn in. Many thanks to our Board of Education for their prompt action in creating this rating policy. We are proud of Grand Blanc Schools and the reputation for excellence they have attained. Sincere thanks. — Meredith L. Anderson

Ward should humble himself

In response to the viewpoint Letter to the Editor Truth and il do not mix, (6/26/08) written by Mr. Harold “Rusty” Ward, Democratic Candidate 51st District. Mr. Ward should humble himself.

The attitude in his response to Ms. Harris’s letter Oil and vitriol do not mix sounds angry. Mr. Ward is running for office? Would you dare have an opinion different than his? How is he going to work for the people in our community?

I happen to agree with Ms. Harris’s letter and was glad to see the Grand Blanc VIEW finally print something from a Republican/conservative view. The Grand Blanc VIEW is full of Democrat/liberal articles with the same attitude of Mr. Harold “Rusty” Ward.

Mr. Ward should get his facts straight regarding how long it would take before we see the benefits of drilling for oil in our own country, “no petroleum until 2030” isn’t reality. Let the people who already own the land be allowed to drill and produce oil and at the same time develop alternative fuels.

Mr. Ward should already know that the people vote for the president of the united states, not CNN or the biased news media. The majority of the people voted for President Bush not once but twice!

As for the Iraq war ... congress voted to go to war. What a disgrace this nation would be had we not sought out the terrorist after the 911 attack? Did Mr. Ward lose a loved one in 911?

At least President Bush chooses to “chest bump” a naval graduate at a ceremony instead of having an affair in the White House bathroom.

Based on Mr. Ward’s attitude maybe he shouldn’t be elected? — Marie Kovach, Grand Blanc

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