06/02/2009: "$600K Tax Dollars For A Lease?"

Dear Editor,

Every so often, two stories are published simultaneously that show just how wide the gap has grown between the environmental movement and humanity.

In today's guest column entitled "By and For the People" LIncoln Bormann, director of the San Juan County Land Bank, congratulates his colleagues -and himself- for successfully lobbying our state legislature to allocate money to protect a piece of land on Lopez Island that hosts, among other things, an aspen grove:

"This year, even in a disastrous economy, the legislature approved $600,000 for a county lease of 40 acres of Odlin South...This money would have gone somewhere else without county residents advocating for conserving our lands."

And in this morning's edition of The Seattle Times we learn where that money could have gone if the Land Bank crowd hadn't gotten its way:

YOU'RE NO LONGER COVERED:
"Budget cuts may soon force out some 36,000 low-income people from Washington's Basic Health Plan, a state-sponsored insurance program."

It looks to me as though the callousness of our Land Bank officials is exceeded only by the stupidity of our elected officials.

Herb Meyer

( Herbert Meyer is a contributor to the National Review; the American Thinker and is the author of several books. He lives on San Juan Island. )