LETTERS: EDITORIAL ABSURDITY

To the editor:

In the Southeast Missourian, generally both the editorial-page editorials and the front-page editorials masquerading as news/feature stories (the Bond articles) clearly identify the editorial position of the newspaper in an outer orbit beyond even the lunacy of planet Limbaugh.

However, the April 2 editorial dealing with attempts to manage flooding in the Colorado River must have left many readers confused. Is the Southeast Missourian opposed to the presence of gawking tourists in the Grand Canyon, opposed to using federal funds to construct dams, opposed to attempts to minimize the environmental impact of dams or was that commentary merely an April Fool's spoof that missed both the mark and the date?

Your observant readers would have to infer, from other editorial positions, that the Missourian actually adopts the absurd position that it is unreasonable for the government to attempt to minimize the environmental impact of federal projects.

ALAN JOURNET

Cape Girardeau

EDITOR'S NOTE: The real question is why the government didn't consider the environmental impact before it built the dam -- and why it took the government 30 years to figure out what to do about it.