To the editor:

There is something that has always bothered me. What is a conservative? I used to believe that a conservative was one that conserves everything that is worthy of conserving such as all our natural resources, land, water, food, etc. Roosevelt was the greatest conservationist that we ever had as president. He started the Civilian Conservation Corps and numerous other ways of saving the land, water, parks and other things dear to us.

I was in the Civilian Conservation Corps for a year in Nebraska. If you didn’t finish high school, you went to school at night. We planted trees to stop erosion, built diversion ditches, dams and terraces to save the soil. Everything was geared toward saving the soil or our natural resources. We didn’t have someone sneaking around trying to get rich off oil while we did without. Gas was cheap but we drove small economy cars, not big SUVs and big four-wheel drive vehicles with big eight-cylinder engines.

If this country is to survive, we should swallow our pride and drive something economical and share the fuel with the rest of the world and try to save a little for the next generation.

Raymond Schott,

Lawrence