Letter to the Editor

Tyranny in Vermont; Sierra supports the bottle bill

Like Paine and Burke, we should oppose tyranny -- in Vermont

Thomas Paine, one of great voices of the American Revolution, once made the following statement: "These are the times that try men’s souls."

He made this comment during a dark time when things were not going well for the patriots fighting against powers trying to deny the liberties of the 13 Colonies. We are in these dark times again. Our liberal/progressive leaders in the state of Vermont are trying ram physician-assisted suicide and a single-payer health plan down the throats of Vermont citizens. What is next? Rationing? Euthanasia?

Governor Shumlin has made health-care reform and cost cutting a top priority of his administration. The specter of a government-run system that relies on rationing of health care along with legalized doctor-assisted suicide is cause for great concern. Is it not a coincidence that the push to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide while at the same time pressure is being put on lawmakers to change health care and reduce health care costs?

If I remember correctly, Shumlin after his election also reduced funding for mental health services. Is this a coincidence? In Oregon, a 64-year-old woman had a recurrence of lung cancer. Her oncologist prescribed a drug which would extend her life by slowing her cancers progression. A 53-year-old man was prescribed a drug for prostate cancer that would not cure his cancer but would

extend his life by several months and make that time more comfortable by decreasing his pain.

Both applied to the Oregon health plan, the state’s Medicaid program for the medication that their doctors had prescribed but were refused the help that they needed. The health organization did tell them that they would cover their assisted-suicide drugs. Why? The Oregon Health Plan administrator explained: "The state can’t cover everything for everyone."

Is what we want for the state of Vermont, physician-assisted suicide or as it is know now as doctor-precribed death. We as citizens of Vermont need to speak up and oppose our state leaders who are advocating for doctor-prescribed suicide and a single payer health care plan. Edmund Burke once said: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." He also said that, "Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny."

It would be far healthier for our society if we worked to restore an understanding of human nature, which is closely linked to Divine Providence, in which suffering plays an important role, and which we do not regard ourselves as masters of life and death, which invariably leads to horrible consequences for humanity.

HUGH E. GALVIN III

Bennington Don’t believe them: Sierra Club wants bottle bill expanded, not repealed

There are few laws in Vermont that have benefited the environment more than the bottle bill. With a return rate of approximately 85 percent (more than twice the statewide recycling rate), the bottle bill has cleaned our roadsides, lessened our reliance on landfills, and lowered our carbon footprint.

Indeed the bottle bill is one of the few ways in which manufacturers are currently being held responsible for the packaging in which their products are delivered. We in the Sierra Club have long supported the notion of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and this is exactly why we would like to see the bottle bill not only kept in place, but expanded to keep another 8 million noncarbonated beverage cans and bottles out of Vermont’s landfills and off of our roadsides.

Thus, we in the Vermont Sierra Club are outraged that the beverage industry has the audacity to reference our literature, taken out of context, in an effort to upend the most successful recycling program in state history. In a letter addressed to the beverage industry’s lobbyist, Amy Shollenberger, we asked that any reference to the Sierra Club be removed from the Website she established for the beverage industry’s lobbying firm, MacLean, Meehan, and Rice.

The Sierra Club whole heartedly supports the bottle bill, as well as the expanded bottle bill called for in H.74 and S.21, while Ms. Shollenberger’s Website promotes a beverage industry-backed bill (H.218) that is highly critical of returnable bottles and cans. Our request has gone unheeded and unanswered.

For the beverage industry to reference the Sierra Club report on Producer Responsibility Recycling (www.sierraclub.org/committees/zerowaste/producerresponsibility/index.asp) in an effort to give the impression that we support a misguided attempt to dismantle a cornerstone of Vermont’s environmental stewardship -- one that an overwhelming majority of Vermonters support -- is deliberately misleading. Surely Ms. Shollenberger did read, just a few paragraphs lower on the very Webpage that she references, that the Sierra Club believes that "There are laws that make producers responsible for taking back their products and recycling them. Bottle bills are an early example."

Our letter also urged Shollenberger to disclose the fact that the beverage industry is paying for the Website that makes such misleading use of the Sierra Club’s name and statements. At present, the website lists only Shollenberger as a contact and fails to identify the beverage industry’s involvement. Only at the bottom of the home page there are the words "paid for by MMR." A link provided indicates that MMR stands for MacLean, Meehan, and Rice, a Montpelier law firm.

No mention is made of the fact that MMR has been hired by the beverage industry to lobby on their behalf.

It is important for the public to know the truth here. Not only does the Sierra Club fully endorse the expansion of the bottle bill that is called for under H.74 and S.21, we remain clearly opposed to H.218 and the attempted "greenwashing" being conducted by Ms. Shollenberger and the beverage industry. The bottle bill remains a landmark piece of environmental legislation. The Sierra Club will not sit idly by as an industry lobbyist resorts to desperate measures in an effort to weaken it.

DAVID ELLENBOGEN

Vermont Sierra Club

Chapter Vice Chairman

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/ci_17703950