Wave Maker: No Big Deal?

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Tuesday, May 16, 2006

No Big Deal?

I must admit, I am quite perplexed.

Yesterday, when I learned that 69 members of the Massachusetts legislature had sent a letter to every member of Congress stating their support for Cape Wind and their opposition to Senator Kennedy's attempt to kill the project, I thought that it would be big news today.

After all, how often during his 44 year career has the Senator been openly criticized by any appreciable number of his fellow partisans?

And yet, the story of the legislators' letter was mentioned only in passing in a Boston Herald story in which the primary focus was Kennedy referring to the wind farm as "Halliburton on the sea." Such a glib and responsible statesman, that Ted.

And ***GASP!!*** it wasn't covered at all in the Boston Globe. Could this be because of the Senator?

Interestingly, the Cape Cod Times story covered this slant:

''He's an icon that we all look up to,'' Smizik said. ''I'm not happy being on the other side of an issue, but it's not about him. There were a few people who didn't want to sign the letter because Sen. Kennedy was on the other side. People were looking at the issue, not Sen.Kennedy.''

"It's not about him." I appreciate the Representative's comment, but really, how naive.
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I must also admit that, as pleased as I am to see that 69 legislators have the common sense and intellectual honesty to take on their own standard bearer on such an important issue, you'd think that the Chairman could have entrusted the drafting of the letter to someone with better writing skills. I mean, I'm no Calvin Trillin, but jeepers, this letter needed some work. How about this for crystal clarity:

"We, the undersigned, want to voice our opposition to the amendment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act that (1) singles out the CapeWind project proposed for Nantucket Sound and (2) subjects it to a veto regardless of the findings of a five year public hearing process."

No bill number? No identification of the amendment number or sponsor name?

How about this one:

"Additionally, the Massachusetts Audubon Society has given the project a provisional approval finding no significant danger to the local endangered species, specifically roseate terns and piping plovers. Please see the attached fact sheet for areas the DEIS/DEIR comments in specific areas."

Or how about this poetic beauty:

Is it fair to ask the people living along the Gulf of Mexico coastline to have gigantic oil rigs and gas flares within view to supply the nation with energy and not have wind turbines in Nantucket Sound? Is it fair to ask the people of the Appalachian mountain area to have mountain after mountain leveled losing ancient forests and mountain streams forever to provide the nation with coal and not have wind turbines in Nantucket Sound? Is it fair to allow the ranches of Wyoming to have the mineral rights taken out from under them for gas exploration and not have wind turbines six miles off the coast in Nantucket Sound?

Ladies and gentlemen. Commas and period are in limitless supply.

Ah well, I shouldn't complain. I wouldn't have expected so many to exhibit such courage so openly -- how can I quibble over their syntax?

Posted by: Wave Maker / 3:20 PM/ |