Moral Courage

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram daily newspaper had yet another Letter to the Editor that speaks volumes about the greed that is affecting us all.

Pollution killing us

I wonder how much longer we’re going to run away from making the hard decisions on the environment and global warming. We’ve made half-decisions and passed half-measures since the ’70s that have not solved our problems but made it easier for companies and utilities to kill and sicken hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and levels of health in the name of "jobs" and "the economy." How many more people will have to die or be made seriously and permanently ill in the name of "business breaks"?

If we don’t solve this problem now, if we just keep passing it on to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we’ll be condemning those innocents to shorter and harder lives, not only economically but also physically. We’ll be continuing to pass on the decisions we should have made long before now to make ourselves, but not our heirs, more comfortable.

There should be no "right to pollute" in the name of "jobs and the economy." Polluting should be so economically and morally costly that no one can get away with it.

But we lack the moral courage to do any differently.

— John Hightower, Fort Worth

We salute Mr. Hightower.