Published: June 29, 2009 07:41 am      

Letters for June 29, 2009

Discussion on gas wells needed

I’d like to commend Maryland’s town board for its open discussion of a gas drilling moratorium for a new natural gas well slated for drilling soon in the town. The moratorium would delay work while the town considers how to best protect itself from the considerable dangers associated with gas drilling.

The well is located close to a Boy Scout camp and private seasonal camps as well as creeks that flow into the Susquehanna River, springs, wetlands and at least a dozen local water wells. The driller has plans for many more gas wells in the area, as well as the new technology, high-volume horizontal hydrofracking.

The discussion was lively and it was clear that both those for and against had thought long and deeply about their positions and truly cared about their community’s well-being. The discussion was a welcome change from the lack of open public debate on the issue up until now.

The changes that full-blown gas fields will bring to our communities will be monumental, and we all need to decide if this is the future we want. This is not something to be decided in just an evening or two.

We’ll only be able to make the best decisions if we all bring our best information forward and spend time together weighing options. We’re facing very tough choices brought on by diminishing fossil fuel supplies, rapidly accelerating climate change and a failing economy.

What’s the best long-term solution for our communities?

It would be wonderful if each of our town boards now facing gas wells in our backyards would have this kind of discussion.

A group named Action Otsego (actionotsego@gmail.com) can offer background information on the pertinent issues and to help arrange information sessions similar to the one heard most recently by our county board.

Paddy Lane

Pittsfield

We’re not wired to text and drive

How can we do two things at the same time, that is, drive and text message? A closer look at how we see _ our vision _ will give us some insights.

Vision is uniquely divided into two independent systems, guidance (peripheral) vision and focal (foveal) vision.

Each goes to a different brain structure enabling us to do two things simultaneously, for example, walk and read at the same time. Guidance vision is responsible for “where we are going” and keeping us on our path. Focal vision enables us to identify “what we are looking at.”

When we drive, these two systems work together. If we look down for a few seconds, guidance vision keeps us on the road.

Since our guidance vision is so adept at keeping us on the road, we develop a false sense of confidence that we are capable of doing something else, such as text messaging. If a vehicle or pedestrian is in the line of travel, the “what is ahead” vision isn’t available, and we will not detect an obstacle ahead in a timely fashion.

How many close calls have we had when we were distracted and looked elsewhere only to realize the vehicle ahead has stopped?

Getting back to the example of walking and reading, if we fail to see an obstacle ahead as we are too busy reading, we will mostly suffer from embarrassment as we unexpectedly walk into that obstacle. In a moving vehicle, failure to heed what’s ahead can lead to very tragic consequences.

Rule of thumb: Guidance and focal vision must be allowed to contribute their unique abilities simultaneously so that we can safely reach our destination.

Dr. Lawrence T. Guzy

Oneonta

Guzy is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the department of psychology at State University College at Oneonta.

Blame terrorists, not former leaders

In the June 17 Letters to the Editor, Walter Wouk presented the claim that after World War II. Japanese soldiers were executed for waterboarding. I am curious if this claim can be backed up as a stand-alone fact, or if it is simply more left-wing spin mastering. Is it sort of like saying Jeffrey Dahmer was imprisoned because he was gay, or that Ted Bundy was executed because of his infidelity and because he was a serial cad.

To give Nancy Pelosi and other liberal icons a pass, and place any and all blame on President Bush and Vice President Cheney is the height of partisan cowardice.

If you believe that waterboarding is an offense that requires incarceration, you have to lobby for the incarceration of all who sanctioned it _ from Bush to Pelosi, from Dick to Hillary. Anyone who signed off on it is guilty _ you can’t pick and choose only those you want to be mad at.

Those who oppose “enhanced interrogation” rail that if we do not uphold the Geneva Conventions, how can expect our enemies to do the same with American detainees?

Does the name Daniel Pearl mean anything? How about Nick Berg? Eugene Armstrong? Jack Hensley? As a terrorist organization fighting a shadow war, al-Qaida is a walking violation of the Geneva Conventions.

How about a little condemnation of THEM for a change?

James FitzGerald

Sidney Center