Letter to the Editor

Author: [no author name found]

To the Editor:

With the average price of a gallon of gas in the United States at $2.91, the fourth highest ever, and growing public unrest regarding the rising gas prices and the war in Iraq, there has never been a better time to refocus America's energy strategy on alternative energy sources. President Bush should seize this historic opportunity to address the United States' increasingly costly and dangerous dependence on oil.

The biggest hurdle for alternative energy sources is funding, which could be addressed with a gas tax at the pump levied specifically to fund the research and development of alternative energy sources. Instead of subsidizing the oil industry through our Middle East entanglements, we should utilize two of America's biggest assets: brilliant scientists and engineers, who when given proper funding, could find cheaper, more efficient ways to produce ethanol-based energy and solar power, as well as our capitalist system, which when presented with the incentive of profit and a protected market, could be steered towards this dynamic innovation.

Now is the time to act! Prices jumped $0.13 in the last week. A one-cent tax per gallon of gas would go practically unnoticed by the consumer at the pumps, yet generate billions of dollars of funding and subsidies for the alternative energy industries that would have an instant impact.

Japan's oil consumption over the last 20 years has remained constant through its solar energy initiatives. The technology and innovation are at our fingertips. But we must, as a society, be willing to reach for it. That will take a societal shift in perspective that includes taking into consideration the future consequences of our oil reliance. If we don't act now, soon the problem will not be avoiding the skyrocketing summer gas prices, but rather the rising temperatures.

Sincerely,

Ryan K. Hart '06.5

Rutland, Vt.





To the Editor:

While I regularly enjoy The Campus, I found that the quality of last week's issue was greatly affected by the undertones of indignation over Julia Bredrup's rebuttal pamphlet. Simply put, Ms. Bredrup was right, and The Campus was wrong. I would like to note that neither Alex Stanton nor Julia Bredrup compelled me to write this article; I am addressing this issue out of my own moral exigency regarding the issue of free speech.

Once in the editorial, and again in the cover story, The Campus accuses Ms. Bredrup of illegally inserting her rebuttal to Mr. Assar's piece.

Ms. Bredrup's actions, however, are not illegal until thusly ruled by a court. I would urge them to keep this in mind.

Also, The Campus possesses no special sanctity capable of being violated. In 1829, when freed slave David Walker began slipping his anti-slavery pamphlet into the linings of the pants he made at a clothing factory, was he violating the sanctity of those trousers? No. He was conveying important information.

As an SGA senator, I sent out an e-mail encouraging seniors to vote. I was particularly troubled by one response I received, condemning Mr. Stanton on the grounds that he illegally (there's that word again) inserted pamphlets into The Campus. This student informed me that he was so ouraged because he "expects the documents contained [by The Campus] to be certified and reviewed by its editors."

This is terrifying to me. That there are intelligents students at Middlebury College, who are offended that writing presented to the public is not filtered and edited is absurd. Do Middlebury students want pablum? Do they want censorship? Is The Campus staff the appropriate body to provide this "certification" of opinions, or perhaps we should create a council of inquisition and defer to them?

I would ask the Campus staff and Middlebury students to remember that the newspapers, though they have long been the defenders of free speech, hold no monopoly over it. In fact, it seems a bit hypocritical when the self-proclaimed free-speechers whine over the fact that someone used their paper to express an idea. Contrary to what seems to be the popular opinion, newspapers are not the only defenders of free speech. Common Sense, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were all pamphlets long before the newspapers picked them up. Freedom of speech, as sure as it holds no favored ideas, also holds no favored medium.



Sincerely,

Andrew Carnabuci '06

Mount Kisco, NY