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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Mineral Heist
To the editor: Gas lines are being spider-webbed beneath our city (“Drilling Through Peace and Property,” Nov. 29, 2006). If one explodes or catches fire, a domino effect destroying this city and lives is very possible. Remember Texas City?
Drilling takes 6 to 8 million gallons of water, while we are forced to endure residential water restrictions. Once gas wells are drilled, home well water becomes unusable, smelling like rotten eggs supposedly due to sulfur, which many people are allergic to. Laundry sinks, bathtubs, and toilets become stained, plumbing lines ruined. Bottled water has to be purchased for all daily survival needs. Your monthly “royalty” checks probably won’t offset this cost.
Drilling 24/7 at 86 decibels unwinds the nervous system; sleep is impossible. Fumes and dust are deadly for people with breathing problems and cause other health problems as well. Home values decline by half or more in many instances, which may influence banks not to approve loans to repair or purchase such homes.
Unconstitutional overriding of our Fourth Amendment property protection is “stealing” your minerals if you don’t sign them away. Is this Gestapo in America?
Proven clean, safe, efficient, economically produced fuel for both homes and vehicles can be made by refining garbage from our overflowing landfills. Gas is only necessary to line greedy pockets.
Mineral rights owners, please investigate before signing any contracts. Talk to those who’ve experienced these things. Be sure the price you’ll pay is worth the “pennies” you’ll receive while the gas company is making millions using your minerals! It’s not helping you, this country, or our environment.
Carole Lawson
Fort Worth
Horror Show
To the editor: Fort Worth Weekly’s story about the Federal Medical Center at Carswell (“A Crack in the Carswell Wall,” Jan. 31, 2007 ) has had the public’s interest from your first report in 1999 to present. Betty Brink takes no prisoners in her crusade to reveal the horrors that prevail there.
Her coverage of this facility is nothing short of a cause celebre. Ms. Brink knows how to disseminate her stories effectively to get the attention they deserve. It’s been a long journey with the pen and ink, and I pray that soon she can write the epilogue to these ugly chapters of this pseudo medical center.
Pat Conley
Fort Worth
To the editor: The Weekly’s venerable Betty Brink, in her superlative journalistic style, keeps the public up to date with the continuing “horror show” at the Carswell Federal Medical Prison Center. It’s so surreal to read her accounts of the malpractice, official oppression, and the Rolodex of excuses the prison staff offers as exculpatory evidence to indemnify themselves from responsibility and prosecution.
I’m encouraged that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has his legislative eyes on the matter of this virtual death camp.
State prisoners receive better treatment than that given at the Federal Center at Carswell. Thank God it’s the only “compound” in the U.S. for “treating” chronically ill and dying women sentenced to federal time. The real closure to families of the inmates would be to shut the system down and fire everyone!
Theresa Johnson
Fort Worth
Communicate the Costs
To the editor: Regarding your report on the recent media reform conference (“Free the Press,” Jan. 31, 2007): Relevant journalism speaks truth to power. If the “powers that be” own the media, they rarely want to publish the truth.
War is a recipe for disaster, including the drug war. It creates a booming economy for some on the suffering of others. Drug prohibitions trigger violence on our borders and in our streets. The tobacco, alcohol, petrochemical, and drug companies — as well as the U.S. government — would rather incarcerate more of our people per capita than Russia, Cuba, or Communist China; destroy our national forests; cause global warming; and have us all using poisonous tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals than allow the beneficial and virtually harmless plant, cannabis or hemp. Fear-mongering and war runs their gravy train! Can they be ignorant of the damage their policies cause? Communication is what it is all about. The web is the fastest-growing communications medium in the history of the world. A powerful tool, a window of opportunity, in our war of good over evil, the internet continues to revolutionize the way we communicate. Restore a free, fair, and independent press; restore the American dream! It’s time to end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary and environmental costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable.
Colleen Minter McCool
Stephenville
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