ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990                   TAG: 9003122974
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE PEOPLE, NOT SHRIMPERS, OWN SEA

THE COMMENTS of James L. Crawford (Commentary Feb. 28) about Matthew Hoffman's views on property, environmentalism and fishing, were very much to the point. However, one additional point should be made to those who are advocates of the absolute rights of private property.

That is, simply, that these shrimpers in question do not own the Gulf of Mexico, nor do they own the turtles, the shrimp or any other life in the sea. If anyone owns these animals, it is the people of the United States, or the citizens of Texas or Louisiana.

I certainly would not want them to be prevented from catching shrimp. I would rather have shrimp in the market than in the ocean, and the shrimpers should be compensated for their efforts toward this end. But since they are using our ocean, they should do it under whatever conditions we wish to impose. The same situation exists in our area in regard to logging in the national forests.

Crawford touches on the other side of the environmental coin in respect to pollution. Here, the argument is again the right of owners to use their property in any fashion they desire. This matter is being debated in the U.S. Congress, and business groups are resisting any controls on their activities. But again, the environment is not their private property. It is our air, water and our land that they want to dump their waste into and upon.

I believe that economists call this "externalization of costs" or something like that; I would call it dumping your trash on someone else. An analogous situation would be if a resident of Roanoke were to dump all of his garbage into the street, disclaim any responsibility for it, and refuse to help pay for the truck to carry it away.\ C.E. SMITH SHAWSVILLE 


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