LETTERS: ENVIRONMENT IS AT RISK

To the editor:

Hidden in the Contract With America are several proposals that would be costly and disastrous. These proposals say that private property owners have the right to pollute and destroy our environment or eliminate species from the face of the planet unless paid not to. These proposals would eliminate all protection for endangered species and allow destruction of the habitats in which they live. These proposals place individual or corporate economic gain above human health costs and above public benefit and the public good.

The current Congress seems committed to destroying our ability to protect our health, the environment in which we live and the other species with which we share this planet. This is not a Contract With America to be shared by Americans. It is a contract against America for the benefit of special-interest groups who would profit at our expense.

If you don't care about the future, say nothing, and the future will be destroyed. But if you care, find out what is happening and then stand up and be counted. Contact your representatives in the House and Senate and demand that they not destroy our future in the interests of individual and corporate greed. Demand that health, environmental and endangered species laws to maintained.

ALAN JOURNET

Cape Girardeau