You don't get there from here by putting birds or advertising on license plates. On Spaceship Earth, we have a right to the optimal environment our bodies were made for.

The houses farthest from the polluted rivers in the 1800s belonged to those who ran or profited from the businesses that polluted them. Life was sacred to them; their lives, no one else's. And ain't that the case today?

Profit is why the earth has a fever. Profit is why the sound barrier is broken from the sonic garbage of adult toys making noise. Profit is why the media pimp for the polluters and it's why the Legislature spends more time on establishing Cub Scout Day.

A sound environmental policy begins with the natural environment that our ears, eyes and lungs, were made for. Anything that takes from that environment is a huge cost and careful accounting should be done to see that what harms that environment profits all not just a few but profits enough to outweigh the damage done.

Now if you can buy something to pollute you can use it and the Legislature plays the three monkeys of don't see it, don't hear it and sure as heck aren't gonna speak of or do anything to correct it. Putting Wall Street first has made our economy, our community, our environment worse. It's time for sound environmental policy.

George Hunt

Augusta