Dear Editor:

The citizens of Freestone County have been dealt a big delay in determining what is in the air we are breathing. This is not a dead issue. Since the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will not install an air monitor in our county, then we citizens must demand one. We may have to wait for a new state representative.

The reasons given for not installing an air monitor by Mr. Luke Ward, Sr., who has been a longtime opponent of an air monitor, are simply invalid. We have discussed the reasons for an air monitor every time we met. With Luminant, LLC (formerly TXU) in his precinct, he apparently feels compelled to protect them from having to upgrade or replace their plant. What about our health?

TXU promised us they would install scrubbers on the Big Brown I and II during the discussion as to whether Freestone County should join the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition during the Big Brown III permit application. On that basis, Commissioners’ Court decided not to join.

Now we have bogus reasons for not installing an air monitor. Mr. Byron Cook, our current state representative, does not believe we should have an air monitor in Freestone County. On February 18, 2010, I attended a meeting of Concerned Citizens for the Constitution. Representative Cook admitted when he was appointed to Chair the Environmental Committee, he knew nothing about our environmental issues.

Once, when some concerned citizens from our area went to Austin to speak with him on an environmental issue, he had the energy lobbyist there first. I wonder from whom he has received his environmental education. From listening to him speak; I am concerned he has received biased information.

With only an associates’ degree from Navarro College and his pro energy sentiment, I feel we should not rely on his recommendation that we not have an air monitor in Freestone County.

Also, why is it one is required to live within a twenty mile radius to be a party to a contested hearing against a polluting entity, however, we are told we should rely on an air monitor forty or fifty miles away?

So many concerned citizens have worked long and hard to enlighten people in our area about the pollution in Freestone County. Realizing how disparate the situation is, many area citizens have come together to work towards making it better. At a previous commissioner’s court, we filled the room and they had to bring in more chairs.

Before the packed room of concerned citizens, the Commissioners voted in favor of having an air monitor installed in Freestone County. We were so proud of them doing the right thing for the health of the people, despite all the outside pressures. Finally, what was good for the people won over the big Energy Companies? We were so proud of our county leaders.

Being an Engineer, Mr. Charles Morgan worked tirelessly to gather information to help get it started. He was in contact with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, (TCEQ) to make sure they would accept the data of the air monitor. He helped find locations with the proper electrical/phone set-up. He contacted qualified contractors who could install it. He freely gave a great deal of time and effort to help our community get this project going.

Then, on March 1, 2010, there was to be another County Commissioner’s Court meeting. I was informed some representative from some company in Houston was going to give a presentation. I was praying it was someone who would come in to help get the air monitor set-up. With great anticipation, I attended that meeting.

WAS I EVER WRONG! We all had to wait an hour for the representative from Golden to arrive at the meeting. I suspect there were those who hoped some of us would go home before he arrived, but we stayed.

The speaker was from a company who has done, and is bidding work for Luminant. A company that has mostly done stack testing at plants, to tell us we must spend $147,000 to do all kinds of unnecessary work, or work that has already been done. We could have bid documents for less than $15,000.

We were told we could make comments either before the presentation, or after. We were waiting to speak after, so we could comment on what the Golden rep. said. Immediately after the speaker finished, Mr. Luke Ward spoke quickly and motioned to drop the air monitor. Judge Grant started to ask for votes. We were shocked. We asked to speak first and Ms. Grant decided to let us do so.

After a number of compelling pleas not to drop the air monitor project, all four commissioners quickly and unanimously voted to drop it. It is my opinion they had predetermined to drop it no matter what was said or done. The O.K. was given and yet taken away so quickly. I was unaware the court worked in that manner.

We must have an air monitor in our county in order for the TCEQ to have a basis for an air modeling analysis to evaluate permit renewal and any new air permits sought for power plants in our county.

Citizens for Environmental Clean – Up (CEC) believes Luminant, LLC is fiercely fighting not having an air monitor in Freestone County because it will show just what we are breathing, and will cause them to modify the existing plants in order to come into compliance with existing National Ambient Air Quality Standards. They are currently emitting three and one half times more pollutants than Harris County (Houston) which is in non-attainment of those standards.

We must continue the fight for an air monitor within 10- 20 miles of our largest polluter in the State of Texas!

Sincerely, Helen Pickett Member “Citizens for Environmental Clean-Up” (CEC)

* * * * * Dear Editor:

What a wonderful country we live in! We are so blessed to make our own decisions, attend the church of our choice, choose the doctors we prefer and give to the charities we choose!

For most of us, it is the failures and disappointments we have faced that made us stronger, better people, capable of making wiser decisions! It is this wisdom that should be shared with our youth. However, it is almost as if our youth are being encouraged to think they are wiser than we. It is as if history has changed from what we learned. How could that be?

We have been reading many good books, including: “The 5,000 Year Leap,” “The Constitution,” “Liberty and Tyranny” and many others, as well as watching “The Fall of the Republic,” “The Obama Deception” and “Generation Zero” (these can be ordered off the internet). We have spent much time reflecting on what is going on in our country.

If you are interested in less government control, stopping the spending abuse, abiding by the Constitution and supporting the principles of our Founding Fathers, you might consider supporting a tea party. These parties are held all over. The next ones will be on April 15 (tax day). Some of the closer ones are Athens, Tyler and Waco.

For the moment, we are a free country and are entitled to our opinion. We respect that freedom. It is so important for each of us to educate ourselves, our families and those who do not have the time to listen, or are simply too frightened and depressed to understand what is happening.

We are reading and watching all we can to convince ourselves that good intentions are being sought by this government for the future. In our opinion, that is not the case.

Please spend time studying the facts, read about our Founding Fathers and our Constitution and study the mistakes from the past and decide for yourself. We seem to be headed down the same road of many countries that made these same devastating mistakes.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

God bless America! Jack and Karen Albright Fairfield

* * * * * Dear Editor:

I would like to congratulate you on serving the community with a great paper. I have personally observed both local papers steadily change and improve over the last few years and I enjoy both of them in their uniqueness.

Now to the main part of this letter. I recently learned a lesson the hard way. One, at the age of 62, I should have already learned!

This past Tuesday I kept a promise to a friend and voted for her in the local election, not knowing that the Democratic ticket did not have these very important propositions listed on their ballot (or forgetting . . .?).

After I made a few other votes, I left on my way to work in East Texas, only making it a few miles before realizing I had not seen the propositions I deemed important to vote on (duh).

I immediately returned to the voting station and asked why I had not seen them. After being looked at like the 62-year-old dummy I was, it was explained to me that these important propositions were only on the Republican ballots!??

I asked why and the answer given was “we don’t know, maybe because it was not on the Democrat’s platform.”

My beef today is “why does Texas not allow cross ticket voting in the primaries?”

Surely, there are lots of Freestone county voters who wonder the same thing . . . Republicans and Democrats alike?!

I just know, intuitively, that many of the good Democrats in this county feel the same way as I and many Republicans do about the two propositions that most interested me in this election (1) Putting God (The God of the Bible), prater and the 10 Commandments back in the public realm. There simply is no imaginary “wall of separation” between government and religion in our wonderful and time tested Constitution. Several of our former presidents, representing both parties, rightly noted that a nation who divorces God from its public discourse will eventually fall from prominence and then collapse under the weight of its inevitable bad decisions and wrong actions. (2) Requiring every girl or woman wanting an elective abortion to view her unborn child via a sonogram. These modern machines produce wonderfully clear images of the unborn baby within, and it’s abundantly clear that what they are viewing is not just a blob of tissue (fetus).

That face, I am relatively sure, is the main reason that the “choice” camp does not want them viewed! Leaving out all the “seemingly good” reasons for having an abortion (it is estimated that fully 10 percent or more are for convenience sake) the life of the potential mother is never really benefitted by an abortion. A cesarean would be much more beneficial for both mother and child, according to statements made by several obstetricians over the last decade.

Although missing the opportunity to vote on these proposals, I was very encouraged to see that almost one million Texans did cast a vote, with more than 90 percent voting for them. The lone exception being the required sonogram, on which just over 65 percent (almost 650,000 people) agreed.

Maybe allowing cross voting in the primaries would have allowed many thousands of other voters (independents and Democrats) to weigh in their own consensus on these vital matters.

Sincerely, Roy Peterson Fairfield