THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
It was Thomas Jefferson, I believe, who was credited with the observation that a people get the kind of government they deserve. One could add that they also get the kind of environment they deserve.
We have a governor who secretly forms panels whose efforts will directly affect Virginia's air, water, wildlife and wild places, yet who purposely excludes from membership on those panels anyone who will speak in defense of the very things being threatened by the panels' mission.
We have a state whose scenic vistas grow ever more opague from air pollution; whose cities so routinely violate air-pollution limits that special fuels must be imposed upon motorists; whose drinking water sources have been so diminished that trans-state pipelines are needed to ship more water; where rivers and bays become so foul that entire industries dependent upon them collapse; where thousands of acres of farm and forest lands disappear under continually metastasizing wastelands of asphalt, concrete and the monotony of suburbs; and where billions of taxpayer dollars will be spent in a vain attempt to save seaside structures built on ephemeral sand banks.
It appears Virginians are indeed getting what they deserve on both counts: a government predisposed to oligarchy and secrecy and a land progressively more impoverished of its natural blessings.
ALLEN KREGER
Norfolk, March 3, 1995 by CNB