To the editor:

Kris Kobach has called Gov. Sebelius’ veto of the bill allowing the Holcomb project to proceed a cave-in to the left-wing environmentalists. Finally, environmentalism has spread to a majority of Kansans! Kobach and his fellow Republicans in the Statehouse don’t seem to recognize the link between the livability of the planet and life. It would be nice for everyone to have unlimited opportunity for economic development, but that’s not possible. Why especially risk (and the risks are known, not a myth) the climate of the Earth for a modest, short-term economic gain?

I have always wondered why so-called conservatives are unwilling to conserve. (Actually, I know the answer: They want to conserve the money in their wallets and that’s about it). In my mind the pejorative “environmentalist” has been used much too much to describe people who really just want to conserve. Manifest destiny and its offspring, rape of the earth, are discredited.

Leftism/environmentalism/conservativism vs. rightism/statusquoism/consumerism. It really is an ideological struggle. I hope the right can see some truth in the ideas of the left. We’ve given in to your ideal for too long. I hope it becomes plain to you that change is in order.

To the reader – If you would check off on the statement “I’m against the building of new, coal-fired power plants,” would you also get out of your cars, turn off unused lights and appliances and move your thermostats lower in the winter and higher in the summer?

Steve Pierce,

Lawrence