LETTERS: BOND BACKS SOUND CONSERVATION

To the editor:

I comes as little surprise that Alan Journet would take the League of Conservation Voters' evaluation and lead us to believe that our U.S. representatives are insensitive on environmental issues. Taking votes out of context to serve a political purpose is typical for an environmental extremist like Journet.

Environmentalists are entitled to be extreme, but they are not entitled to distort the facts. For example, U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, who serves as chairman of the committee that funds the Environmental Protection Agency, fully funded the president's Clean Water Action Plan and added another $275 million above the president's budget for clean-water initiatives. In total, Congress provided $2.8 billion for clean water at the EPA. Either Journet knows this and has chosen to mislead voters, or he doesn't know it, which means he is not only extreme, but lazy and reckless in his research.

Journet should also be informed that Bond has supported conservation measures ranging from the Conservation Reserve Program to the Agroforestry Floodplain Initiative to the Clean Water Action Plan. Bond knows that some regulations and bureaucrats are necessary but prefers giving farmers and mayors solutions, not just mandates.

Those who have watched Bond over the years know his understanding of an commitment to conservation. Asking an extremist like Journet for a professional evaluation of a political race is like asking Mayor Spradling to officiate a Cape-Jackson football game. Voters should keep this in mind when they consider Journet's radical raving.

LARRY DOWDY

Cape Girardeau