Editor’s note: This letter was edited to delete references that may have been construed to expressly advocate violence or property destruction. The Camera does not condone or endorse violence or property destruction of any kind. However, the letter presents a philosophical question the Camera believes is worthy of community conversation in the context of the ongoing discussion over fracking.
Republicans legislators as lackeys for the oil and gas Industry refused to keep fracking wells at least 1,000 feet from schools thereby refusing to protect our children. Hydraulic fracking companies in Colorado release into the air and inject into the ground, solutions containing known carcinogens endangering our health. In March of 2012, Physicians for Social Responsibility called for a moratorium on fracking in order to protect human health and the environment. In June 2015, New York State banned fracking because of threats to the environment and significant public health risks. Fracking results in air, water and soil contamination; species extinction; ozone depletion; climate change and necessitates medical treatment for skyrocketing cases of asthma, cancer, immune system diseases, cognitive deficiencies, miscarriages and birth defects. So, while the profits from fracking go to the oil and drilling companies, the costs of cleanup, adverse environmental and health consequences will be borne by the people of Colorado. The oil and gas companies are putting their profits ahead of the health of the people in Colorado; consequently, fracking equals murder. Malcolm X said: ” I don’t call it violence when it’s in self-defense; I call it intelligence.” Coloradans must be intelligent and act in self-defense to protect their neighborhoods and children from the existential threat of fracking. Weibo Ludwig of Calgary, Canada fought back by pouring cement down wellheads and blew up wells. If the oil and gas industry puts fracking wells in our neighborhoods, threatening our lives and our children’s lives, then don’t we have a moral responsibility to take action to dissuade frackers from operating here?
Andrew J. O’Connor
Lafayette
