LETTERS: GOP PLAN FOR FUTURE?

To the editor:

The alert reader might have noticed something missing from the page-long campaign column by Newt Gingrich and Robert Dole lauding the accomplishments of the Republican Congress in rolling back 30 years of expanding government: There was no mention of the impact of their Congress on human health and the environment. While supporters of the Contract With America might approve the items listed, polls consistently reveal that Americans, including Republicans, do not support the wholesale dismantling of health and environmental protection that we have witnessed since the 104th Congress began waging its assault on government.

While the Contract With America offered little explicit mention of the coming health and environmental war to be waged, it was present in the fine print. Under the guise of such catch-phrases as "property rights" and "deregulation" -- and endorsed by all of our local representatives -- were a whole range of bills to promote human disease through destruction of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, to exterminate endangered and threatened species such as the grizzly bear and mountain lion, to destroy important wildlife habitat such as Alaskan forests and the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, and to sell of give away our national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges and Bureau of Land Management land ultimately for industrial exploitation and destruction.

Without sensible regulation of public needs such as food, air and water, poisons in our environment will be unregulated and increase. It will no longer be safe to eat, drink or breathe -- things we currently take for granted. Without real conservative, professional management of our natural resources, the basis of wealth for future generations will be destroyed. We will have sacrificed future generations for current, short-term gratification.

KATHY CONWAY

Cape Girardeau