LETTERS: Develop Conecuh's lake, not landfill; Second Amendment protects gun owners; Won't forget about Reagan



Develop Conecuh’s lake

instead of the landfill



Please, Conecuh County, my neighbor, may it never be. I live in Monroe County, and I have dear friends in Evergreen, Repton and Lenox. These are friends and neighbors who will be affected for years along with all Monroe Countians, too, by a “supercenter” national dump of Conecuh Woods’ size and longevity.

Yes, this 5,000-acre tract has everything going for it from the landfill industry’s perspective: rail, major interstate and highway access, sparsely populated area, a supposedly economically depressed county. No wonder Conecuh County was in the industry’s sights.

Might all of southwest Alabama step back and ask ourselves: Is this really what we want to be known for? Would many homeowners, renters or campers consider living or staying once they caught a whiff of that? Why aren’t more of us mad about this?

But refreshing winds of truth-telling are blowing. This debate is forcing both sides to get their facts straight and expose more of the truth. Maybe we can be good neighbors by working with these out-of-staters to find a way to help them dispose of their own consumers’ trash instead of dumping it on us.

Let us propose another tack: Find a way, citizens of Conecuh County, to get the lake going. You could even name it Lake Conecuh Woods, just for irony’s sake. Use some of the oil lease money to develop a tourist-attracting, resource-preserving, landscape-enhancing, job-creating, money-producing beauty instead of a dump.

May Conecuh County always remain a jewel in Alabama the Beautiful, and never become Conecuh the “Dumpiful.”






Second Amendment

protects gun owners



I must respond to the recent letter about gun control (“Gun control doesn’t erase gun rights,” Feb. 21). Thanks to our Founding Fathers’ inclusion of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, our government cannot completely disarm the American people. They had the foresight to protect the people from the power of the government.

The writer states that no attempt has been made to seize firearms. Maybe he would like to ask the residents of New Orleans what that was like in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Mass murder is not always committed with a gun. Recent events show that someone bent on murder will use anything at his disposal, be it a knife, a car or a baseball bat. As for the “scores of assault weapon related deaths on our streets,” the writer must be thinking of Mexico.

There are already enough laws passed to regulate and control guns. Maybe we need judges and attorneys general who will enforce current laws and not make deals and put criminals back on the street.

It’s “common sense gun control” like the writer proposes that would ban my grandfather’s bolt-action deer rifle because it has a scope and looks like a “sniper rifle.” It would ban his .22 squirrel gun because it’s a semi-automatic and has a magazine capacity of more than 10 rounds — an “assault rifle.”

Once you allow a piece of your rights to be taken away, the rest soon follow, and you stop being a citizen and become a subject.






Won’t forget about

Reagan, other leaders



I have never been shy about saying that Ronald Reagan was one of the great men of our time. When you say “leadership,” Ronald Reagan naturally comes to mind. His victory in the Cold War, his defense of fiscal conservatism and a free economy, his passion for human liberty and his respect for our military do not fade with the passage of time.

Frances Coleman contends that we should allow Reagan (and Coach Bear Bryant) to settle in the history books (“Where The Gipper and the Bear belong,” Feb. 13). Why not allow all of our great presidents and leaders to fade into history?

Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy are constantly quoted and revered. Should we forget about George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson? What about others who impacted our culture and our social and religious values, such as Gens. Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Amelia Earhart, just to name a few?

As Americans we need to cherish and understand the impact and sacrifices made by so many great men and women. It is disturbing that many of our children’s role models today are rock stars, movie stars and athletes who make millions of dollars and end up with broken lives, bankrupt, suicidal or in prison.

I offer Ms. Coleman four topics that I would like to see disappear from our nation’s discourse: civil rights, political correctness, education and the BP oil spill.

Sorry, but President Reagan will not be forgotten.



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