VIEWPOINTS A8 • DELHI PRESS • JANUARY 11, 2012
Editor: Marc Emral, memral@communitypress.com, 853-6264
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Column pointed out effects of fracking Kudos to State Rep. Denise Driehaus’ excellent column on fracking (hydraulic fracturing drilling process) in last week’s Delhi Press. Last summer, my wife and I watched the HBO Summer Series documentary, “Gasland” mentioned in her article. We found it to be a rare example of documentary art and jaw-dropping reporting. It was a wake-up call to us that should generate a response from everyone who sees it. Actually, the documentary may become to the dangers of fracking natural gas drilling what “Silent Spring” was to DDT. Not surprisingly, it is the 2010 Sundance Film Festival award winner and has been nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for
best documentary feature. As Mrs. Driehaus pointed out, this is a must-see documentary. The documentary points Paul out how ConAshworth COMMUNITY PRESS gress' 2005 Energy Policy Act, GUEST COLUMNIST crafted by former Vice President (and ex-Halliburton exec) Dick Cheney, exempted fracking from long-held environmental regulations such as the clean air and clean water acts. Freed from customary federal regulations, natural gas companies have drilled like wildcatters in 34 states where huge shale
A person of quiet courage
Karren Innis lived with her parents and younger brother in California, Nevada and Oklahoma for the first 10 years of her life. She then moved to Hurst, Texas, and finally settled in Cincinnati soon after finishing college at Mary Manse College in Toledo, a college run by Ursuline nuns that closed in the 1970s. Karren majored in music, but turned to proofreading as her career of choice. She has worked for the last 35 years at Clovernook Center in the Braille transcription department. Karren says that she has recently been proofreading magazines such as The New York Times Book Review and Harper's Magazine. Karren loves her work, and, surprisingly or not, she spends some of her free time reading books and periodicals including mysteries by Mary Higgins Clark and the Guidepost magazine. Karren and her husband, Bill, also enjoy attending plays at the Covedale Theater at 4990 Glenway Ave. They both greatly appreciate that the Covedale offers audio described plays such as “White Christmas,” attended by them on Dec. 3. In addition, Karren and Bill spend a lot of their free time as active members in two leading organizations that work hard to improve the quality of life for people who are blind or visually impaired. Karren's greatest joys in life are her14-year marriage to her husband, Bill, her career as a proofreader, and her volunteer work with the National Federa-
Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum – has a new horticulture volunteer program. Volunteer opportunities include working side by side Spring Grove’s nationally-renowned horticulture team at this National Historic Landmark. Groups of volunteers will be developed to help in the following areas: Keeping the front entrance area looking spectacular, controlling invasive species, taking care of the tree and shrub collection. They are also looking for a volunteer, or volunteers, to help with the hybrid tea roses. New volunteers join the volunteer docents who are ambassadors for the cemetery and arboretum. For more
Joyce Rogers COMMUNITY PRESS
tion of the GUEST COLUMNIST Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB). NFB and ACB both are organizations “of“ people who are blind or visually impaired, who, with their sighted friends and colleagues, give unstintingly of their competence, ability and skill to let the world at large know that they are an important part of this old world. They are the ordinary people of quiet courage performing their jobs, making their marriages work, and taking care of their families just as others do. Karren, aged 66, and Bill, aged 74, are beginning to think about retirement. Whether they decide to move to Texas and become caretakers for Karren's elderly father with health problems, or they stay in Cincinnati and increase their volunteer work; they will add to the pool of goodness in our world. For all you readers out there, any of you can join NFB or ACB and help us make a difference. Contact Paul Dressell at pmdbmd@fuse.net or at 513-4817662, or contact Joyce Rogers at jarogers@one.net or at 513-9213186. It is never too late to find new ways of helping others, and it is never too late to improve your own quality of life by taking on new challenges. We ordinary people of quiet courage welcome you. It is a new year, and it is time we see new faces working with us.
Joyce Rogers lives in Covedale.
information, contact Volunteer Coordinator Whitney Huang, Spring Grove horticulturist at 853-6866. Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum – is the nation’s second-largest cemetery and arboretum which consists of 730 acres. Spring Grove serves the Cincinnati area but has welcomed visitors from all over of the world. As part of the arboretum, more than 1,200 plants are labeled and serve as a reference for the public. Spring Grove is looking for volunteers to help maintain specialty gardens, photograph plants, and help with computer work. Please call 513-853-4941 or email vcoordinator@springgrove.org.
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ABOUT LETTERS AND COLUMNS We welcome your comments on editorials, columns, stories or other topics important to you in The Community Press. Include your name, address and phone number(s) so we may verify your letter. Letters of 200 or fewer words and columns of 500 or fewer words have the best chance of being published. All submissions may be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. Deadline: Noon Friday E-mail: memral@communitypress.com Fax: 853-6220 U.S. mail: See box below Letters, columns and articles submitted to The Community Press may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
Thank you Mrs. Driehaus for introducing the bill to protect Ohio from the continent-wide explosion of fracking projects that threatens watersheds and river
basins, the source of our drinking water. Paul Ashworth lives in Delhi Township.
Pit is very important to culture
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fields contain gas deposits. The documentary maker had ventured west from his home in Pennsylvania to Colorado, Wyoming and Texas, three states riddled with natural gas drill sites. The seat-of-pants investigating documented astonishing and disturbing findings, not least of which is how many residents can customarily light a flame near their tap water outlet and set the polluted water on fire. The primary cause is a cocktail of toxic chemicals, blended with water, which must be used in fracking. Of the 632 chemicals pumped thousands of feet down into the earth, more than 75 percent have been found to have long-term health effects on people, animals and livestock.
A publication of
In the October issue of Cincinnati Magazine Bill Hemmer writes about the “electric atmosphere at The Pit on a Friday night.” No doubt, this is where the Elder spirit is best expressed. But that “Purple Thing” is rooted not in football, but in a culture that created the school itself. During the 1800’s the Price family developed the Hill. And, although they were not of German Catholic decent, they made this segment of society; perceived at the time to be the underclass, feel welcomed. Accordingly, the Catholic population within Price Hill grew exponentially. In 1917, The Price Hill Civic Club’s president, and the premiere Covedale advocate, John Prout, petitioned the city for a Public High School. Recognizing that the east side enjoyed the status of four, he demanded “Equal Recognition” for the west side. However, his efforts fell on deaf ears. Price Hill residents sensed a prejudice; fueled by the city’s anti German posturing during World War I. At the same time prominent Price Hill families, seeking the privilege of higher education for their children, moved to the east side; in neighborhoods designed to appeal to persons of a “high class of citizen-
ship” – void of poor Catholic immigrants. Collectively, these events established the east side/west side cultural Jm Grawe battleground, our COMMUNITY PRESS validated west side underGUEST COLUMNIST dog mentality, and motivated the building of Elder High School - an achievement of immense pride considering that Western Hills High School opened six long years later. For many, Elder’s cornerstone is the chip on our west side shoulder. We dare others to knock it off by welcoming them to the Pit, where the privileged must compete on a level playing field. To date our underdog identity has served us well – especially at the Pit, where on third and long situations it provides a needed burst of adrenalin. But I wonder. Will the Purple Nation’s next generation be willing to party to the underdog song and dance? After all, are we not now the privileged? Perhaps, like the Price family, it is our turn to welcome and live among the underclass – sharing our skills in a way that breaks
people out of the cycle of poverty. Perhaps this is the way to bridge history and progress, and fulfill the promise of our faith-based education. Of this I am certain. For me, and those I grew up with, living within earshot of the Pit was special. As children, we listened to the announcer’s voice echo off the buildings and gauged the Panther’s success by the cheers of the crowd. As adolescences we walked to the games and anxiously awaited our right of passage – being in the cheering section. As students, having roamed the streets of “Pantherville” (Elder’s back yard parishes) we considered ourselves to be a better pedigree of panther. Maybe I’m too much the romantic. But, as an adult I rarely miss a Friday night game at the Pit. In part, because it’s where I can be a kid again; a part of me thinks I’m in Pantherville – a neighborhood with unique stories to tell; about our history, our culture and ourselves – stories that help us understand that “Purple Thing”. Jim Grawe is the co-founder of the Covedale Neighborhood Association.
Author: Raise taxes on millionaires
Dear Sen. Portman: Last spring I sent you a message about how taxes should rightly be raised on those most able to pay – that is, the millionaires and big companies whose lobbyists are part of the no new taxes chorus. Here is an excerpt of a reply that I received from "no_reply@portman.senate.gov": "I believe that increasing taxes is irresponsible during a weak economic recovery. This view is shared widely by economists across the ideological spectrum. Doing so can particularly hurt small businesses, which tend to create around 60 percent of new jobs. This results in even higher unemployment, and stressing an already fragile economy.” Please senator, send me the names of just two left-leaning – or centrist – economists you refer to. Furthermore, senator, I wonder how it is that no one in the GOP could produce even one millionaire willing to speak on this topic to the folks at National Public Radio on Friday, Dec. 9, 2011 –
not even with three days’ notice: "We wanted to talk to business owners Sue who would be Leitner So, COMMUNITY PRESS affected. NPR requested GUEST COLUMNIST help from numerous Republican congressional offices, including House and Senate leadership. They were unable to produce a single millionaire job creator for us to interview. “So we went to the business groups that have been lobbying against the surtax. Again, three days after putting in a request, none of them was able to find someone for us to talk to. A group called the Tax Relief Coalition said the problem was finding someone willing to talk about their personal taxes on national radio." To re-iterate my questions to
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you, senator: 1) Please provide the source for your assertion last March 29 that the idea that raising taxes on the top tier of taxpayers "is shared widely by economists across the ideological spectrum." 2) Please address the issue of why no one in the GOP leadership could produce a millionaire – nor even a lobbyist – willing to speak on this issue to NPR even with three days' notice. I will respectfully offer, sir, a quote that has long been wrongly attributed to a variety of people across the political spectrum: "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth. If you repeat a lie many times, people are bound to start believing it." – Source unknown. Sue Leitner is an Anderson Township resident.
Delhi Press Editor Marc Emral memral@communitypress.com, 853-6264 Office hours: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday See page A2 for additional contact information.