Hopefully it will never happen, but if the demise of America is written about, there may well be this conclusion: They refused
I remember when a ride from Fredericksburg to Washington would involve seeing
From Stafford County to the Chesapeake Bay, cows lined the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers. At that time, oysters filled the bay and crabs were in abundance.
Then taxpayer money brought people from all over the nation and world, in quest of that money. Taxes rose. Politicians said we must have money for roads to accommodate development. There were higher and higher taxes to pay for development.
The land was destroyed, asphalt and cement spread. There was oil, gasoline, all manner of runoff to the streams, rivers, and thus to the bay.
Before development, the bay was well. Now it is nearly destroyed. Who, or what, is at fault? According to so-called environmental groups, politicians, and developers, it's the cow and, oh yes, that heinous creature, the farmer, who are at fault.
I doubt if there are, now, even 10 percent of the cows and farmers that used to be on the land in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, when the bay was thriving.
We have taxed manufacturing overseas. We denigrate the producers. We falsely accuse, yes, even a cow, of killing the bay.
What about the asphalt, cement, more vehicles and people on the land--that could not possibly be the problem, could it?
We paint ourselves a fantasy land, paving roads to destruction, as we deliberately, knowingly, refuse to face reality.
John M. Chinn
Warsaw