Letters to the Editor 6-5-08

Congress battles gas prices

Will someone tell Sander Levin the world problems ethanol has caused in food shortages. Also E-85, in fact, costs more to produce and is more expensive at the pump. Someone explain the economics of the surge in gas prices to Stupak.

The middle man is reaping the money. The Democratic Party has strangled the oil supply to the U.S. by the veto by Clinton to allow exploration and drilling in the U.S., Alaska, east & west coasts, and the Gulf of Mexico in 1995.

If that would have passed, we’d be okay. But the Democratic Party is still working hard to derail any new plans for development. Stupak can have hearings until the cows come home.
There will be no change, just political posturing.

What does $4 a gallon for gas and Michigan voters have in common? They send the three Stooges (Dingell, Levin, Conyers) plus Carl’s brother Sandy and the political hack Stabenow to Washington every year.

They are all Democrats and lifetime politicians; that means they never had a job. They are indebted to every tree hugger and environmentalists, which means they vote “no” on oil pricing and exploration in the continental U.S., Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

Here’s a kicker, the Chinese are drilling in the Gulf. If you’re looking for sympathy I’ll tell you where to find it, but in the meantime don’t be influenced by union, politicians and political hacks.
Vote the right way. — Tom Miller, Davison

Action needs to be taken for hazardous railroad crossing

Had my godfather Ged Clark lived a while longer he might have written this letter himself.

We were both unabashed train fans, spent time at the Gamble store talking about what steamer would be running that summer. I had my first ride in a locomotive cab here in Davison at age 4.

In the mid-eighties I had three teenagers on the road. On Friday and Saturday nights I would be in the living room staring a hole in my watch and chain smoking a whole pack of Winston’s awaiting their return home.

Eventually the headlights would flash on the living room wall, the front door would open and I could relax till next time.

All of these kids wrecked a car in their first year of driving. None of them were hurt, the cars don’t matter. The point is new drivers (under five years experience) are getting on-the-job training.
New drivers sometimes get a bad rap but it’s not always their fault.

We owe it to these new drivers and to the older ones, too, that they get an even break at a railroad crossing. I had crossed the track on Oak Road going south about two weeks prior to this latest accident. I noticed then that the trees constituted a large safety hazard.

Westbound trains are rolling downhill from Lapeer, the momentum they gain here can put them through Davison at 70 mph; at this speed they cover 105 feet of track in a second.

The engineers all know where the worst crossings are, they will lay on the whistle on these more than at the safer crossings.

My feeling is that the lives of the people I share this town and township with are worth more than 500 feet of scrub trees.

There is a liability issue here that falls on the railroad. They should cut the trees on their side of the fence. If that doesn’t improve visibility enough, the trees and brush on the trailer park side must go.

Line of sight on the other three quadrants at this crossing are adequate, only the northeast corner needs work quick.

We need to act on this to prevent another tragedy. — Russ Neimann, Davison