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Make America clean again!
Patty Leon new

It appears that I ruffled a few feathers with my column last week.

GOOD!

We are nothing if we don’t have the ability to speak our minds, share our differences, discuss our varying points of view and more importantly be open to listen to the other end of the conversation. In fact, here at the Coastal Courier, we welcome your letters to the Editor, giving you an opportunity to express your point of view or at least tell the community just how dumb you think I am.

I have developed quite the thick skin, so go for it!

The ability to express an opinion is liberating but, it does come with the responsibility of accepting that some people may not like you for it. And that’s okay with me.

When you reach mid-life, you begin to realize that a real friend will still stick by your side even during times of disagreements. If not, then maybe they weren’t really a true friend to begin with.

Switching over to sports for a bit. 

I think this is the first season that I didn’t watch any NFL games. Normally I would be glued to my seat on Sundays shouting at the TV for my favorite team, but with everything else I had going on, I just didn’t feel like tuning in for a ball game.

However, I was not surprised to hear that Tom Brady managed to take his brand-new team to the BIG GAME. 

They say that it will be the first time an NFL team will have true homefield advantage for a Super Bowl Game when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now that is one game I plan to watch for sure.

GO CHIEFS!

I didn’t watch any college games either, but I did notice just how many kids from Liberty and Long County kept making the headlines like Jamin Davis, David Spaulding, Kevin Harris, Richard LeCounte and just recently, for basketball, Davion Mitchell. They’ve put in a lot of sweat and hard work and I wish them all continued success. 

Now back to stepping on people’s toes.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people are angry that President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order killing the continued construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. They are angry that the order meant the loss of 1,600 jobs. I don’t understand how you can get angry over the loss of 1,600 jobs but not be angry over the loss of 400,000 lives from the coronavirus. Jobs can be replaced, lives can’t.

The pipeline would have carried crude tar sand oil from Canada to Texas which was then going to be shipped to Asia. Currently that task is being accomplished through the trucking industry. If the pipeline were completed would those same people be angry that the trucking industry would suddenly suffer a huge loss too? Or are these just angry gut reactions because the Executive Order is going against the former President’s Executive Order?

I personally think we should be investing in our nation’s future by moving further away from fossil fuels, which adds to our global pollution problems, and employ these same workers in renewable energy job markets. The Solar industry has grown exponentially and is a clean and viable energy source, so is wind and hydro energy.

The auto industry has already shifted gears by investing and manufacturing hybrid vehicles and soon 100 percent electric vehicles. For this initiative to be successful we need to work on our infrastructure and increase charging stations across our country, hence there is plenty of work to do and job opportunities to grow.

Moving away from gasoline powered vehicles will help reduce air pollution.  In a study done by NASA, due to the COVID-19 shutdowns, which reduced the amount of people commuting to work and traveling on roadways, researchers found a 20 percent reduction in global nitrogen dioxide concentrations between February through November 2020. That’s a big reduction in just nine months. Imagine the long-term benefits of lessened auto emissions and once again having clean fresh air in our environment.

Folks talk about leaving a better world for future generations, but actions speak louder than words. If we truly want to make America better for years to come, we must continue to evolve. 

We’ve done it many times before. We evolved from using water and steam power to mechanize mass production to using coal, oil, and gas. We then moved to using electricity to help power mass production and have since evolved to using electronics, computerized automation, and artificial intelligence.

Making America clean again is within our reach, but we must move forward not take three steps back.

-Patty Leon


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