$Pork not fish

The Record

There are many people who believe government agencies exist for the ‘greater good’. For such people the men and women in agencies like the EPA have one thing in mind  – what is best for the entire Hudson River and future generations. The truth is, Virginia, those men and women are simply bureaucrats. If they are told to dredge, they dredge. If they are told not to dredge, they won’t lose a tear.

Why not consider some recent reports and facts before we assume that government agencies exist for the ‘greater good’?  

      ·        County Executive pays no-show jobs.

·        Mayor’s brother takes HUD money to buy house.

·        Connected lawyer, Exner, steals from the OTB parlors he is hired to run.

·        Connected ex-barber gets a $250,000 job and gives his brother a $75,000 job in a political patronage front organization operating as a ‘non-profit corporation’.

·        Civil Service rules are ignored to hire relatives as Police Officers.

The EPA spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Love Canal. But all the pollutants are still there! What happened to the money? Who’s greater good was served?  

No, Virginia, this is a story about $pork – not fish. The fact is even after the half a billion dollar dredging effort, PCB levels in fish will still not meet EPA’s own safety standards.  Those who want to eat the fish will have to wait decades for nature to cover the pollutants.

Irrespective of such facts, Virginia, isn’t it quite arrogant for some to divine the greater good of others? Communities in the Lower Hudson and elsewhere are either not exposed, or exposed to a much lesser degree. The people in Chicago or Miami are not at all affected by Upper Hudson river PCBs. Is it good for San Francisco residents when the EPA does to Ft. Edward residents what Ft. Edward residents don’t want done to themselves?

PCBs are concentrated in the Upper Hudson. The people living in the Upper Hudson are the ones most exposed to PCBs. Those people don’t want the EPA to mess with the PCBs in the river. Why? Are they ill informed? Are they incapable of reason? Are they self-destructive? Or could they actually know what is good for them, and what is not?