Dear Citizens and Elected Officials:
What follows below is an expanded version of the letter-Email I sent off to Senator Bobby Zirkin, Democrat of Baltimore, today, the day of the Vernal Equinox, and just days after a very unusual, surprise Annapolis Press Conference held late Friday afternoon, March 17th, 2017.
Dear Senator Zirkin:
I watched with great interest the clip from the Baltimore Sun of your press conference with Governor Hogan, et al. Here: www.baltimoresun.com/...
It was very strange. You, however, were quite good and composed - Gubernatorial I would say. Governor Hogan's facial expressions were those of man who had opened a closet and found an unexplained corpse, horrified by the political turn of events seemingly beyond his control. His reasoning was equally tortured: we couldn't get the "'protective regulations' we wanted," so now we oppose fracking too.
Missing from the stage was Maryland's permanent Governor, Democratic Senator and Senate President Mike Miller. He was quoted uttering some mealy- mouthed, back-tracking lines in the article, that he never had supported fracking, was for a referendum to let Garrett and Allegany county voters decide. Pretty skimpy cover story, Senator Miller: as if the process of fracking, transporting, processing and yes, exporting natural gas to Asia and India was not a matter of concern to all Maryland residents, and beyond, to all those who worry about fracking's contributions to global warming, habitat fragmentation and other direct pollution threats.
I would remind Senate President Miller of the maps disclosing where fracking leases had been let by 2012 (maps which I helped "conceive" – having discovered, amazingly, that none existed showing the location of the resources and the threats) - surrounding the most vital water resources for much of the Frostburg area — and Frostburg State University too. If those fracking operations had gone bad, then the whole state would be paying for the remediation - if remediation were possible. {The maps can be viewed here: www.dropbox.com/… and here www.dropbox.com/...}
I would also remind Senate President Miller of his letter of January 30, 2017 which I have in front of me, sent to many of the opponents of fracking in Western Maryland. Now I can read that letter a half-a-dozen times, which I already have, squeeze it this way and that, and hold it up to the sunlight from today's Vernal Equinox, but I just can't find anti-fracking sentiments in that composition.
Perhaps what I have just written is now irrelevant, undercut by currents in Annapolis that I, just a mere citizen in a capitalist-corporate oligarchy, am not "privileged" enough to see. Perhaps Senator-Chairwoman Carter-Conway and then the Senate will do the right thing and ban the process for good. That would be a positive and clarifying act, so that Maryland can get on with the task of building a healthier economy for those residents who need it most, those left behind by the economic mechanisms that both the Clintons and Larry Hogan have supported in the past, which are leaving so many behind. I call it Neoliberalism and Austerity, the two words which never surfaced all during America's Campaign from Hell, the Presidential election of 2016. They can call it whatever euphemism they like: they still just don't get the sources of the pain of the American people, who knew things were not as Mrs. Clinton portrayed them. At least not for the bottom 60% of us.
Stopping fracking is important, but not sufficient in itself. It’s a first-step, a needed blocking action, with much more of a positive nature - economically and ecologically - still necessary. Is the Maryland legislature capable of that? Do they know how deep the human and ecological damage is out here? I don’t think our delegation sees any connection, nor West Virginia politicians for that matter, between the economic devastation and the drug epidemic…they’re going to fight Reagan’s War on Drugs no matter how Vietnam-like the results.
Myself, I see the answer in FDR’s Second Bill of Rights: not the whole answer, by any means, but more of a solid foundation than either Senator Mike Miller, Governor Hogan or the current President can even conceive.
And Governor Hogan, one last word: whatever your scrambled motivation, thank you. At least you’re not going to make it worse out here.
Let’s see what happens next.
Best,
billofrights
Frostburg, MD
PS Readers who want another version of what happened can visit the WaPo’s article here: www.washingtonpost.com/...