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Most of you have probably heard
of the Cap and Trade bill (HR 2454). If you own your home, you really
need to check this out. Those who have computers, go to Google, type in
Cap and Trade Act-H.R. 2454.
The way I understand, it is beginning one year
after enactment of the bill. You won’t be able to sell your home
unless you retrofit it (green it up) to comply with the Energy and
Water Efficiency standards. This bill has already passed the
House of Representatives, it only needs to pass the Senate.
Now this program may be a little like direct mail
program (meant for good in the beginning). At one time, people received
paper checks from the government by mail. Now all monies from the
government are sent electronically to the bank. It was not 100 percent
in the past, but now it is. If money in one’s account is not
closely monitored that can cost you bank fees. That is the fallacy in
direct mailing for the lower income.
This new program of retrofitting your home may
also be meant for good, however, in this case, unlike the direct
mailing, it will be the upper middle-class who bear the majority of
retrofitting cost. A grant of several thousand dollars will be paid the
lower income to retrofit their homes.
Have you noticed how many classes we now
have in a so-called classless society. We now have the upper class -
that’s the rich and power. Then there’s upper middle class
- highly educated and wealthy professionals. Next, a middle class -
college education. Then we have the lower middle class - mostly
clerical and blue-collar workers. A lower class, the working poor and
unemployed under class.
The bill, aka “American Clean Energy and
Security Act of 2009”, will be complicated and will eventually
include your appliances and so forth. Requirements will be set low
initially, so the bill will pass Congress. Then the administrator can
set much tougher new standards every year. Eventually, it could be that
all homes for sale or not, all workplaces and businesses will be forced
to retrofit. This, of course, could be meant for good, but will be a
hard hill to climb for many. The government will phase it in slowly,
but it will come.
Nadine Hood Overstreet
Haleyville
We, the people, must change our
direction if we want this country to continue to have the freedoms that
you and I, and our ancestors, have enjoyed. Our generation has become
lazy. Too many of us do not participate in the process of electing our
leaders. It’s no wonder we have people holding government offices
who do not represent us, not caring what we think or what. This must
change, and we can no longer expect our neighbors to do it for us.
We, that means you and me, must start letting our
desires be known by becoming active in that “dirty word”
politics. We must also ask our churches to get involved. We have heard
that “politics” and “politicians” are dirty
words. We have downgraded these words and the people involved, until
our children and grandchildren do not want to participate in the basic
freedom that was handed down to us by our ancestors.
Most people are too busy to take part. We prefer
some form of recreation, or to just stay home, rather than research the
candidates on computer, read the newspaper, or go to a political rally
and question our political candidates.
If our country is to prevail and remain free, we
must get involved and demand term limits. We have reached the point of
having career politicians. This can be the downfall of this country if
we don’t change it. Career politicians lose touch with you and me
and become insulated from the common man.
We must actively encourage good, qualified,
God-fearing people, the best among us, to run for political office and
actively support them. Talk for them and support them financially. Seek
the Lord, thy God, for guidance. Don’t be ashamed to do these
things. After seeking guidance from the Lord, speak out. This is a
freedom we are going to lose if we don’t use it. Talk with
friends and neighbors. There is still time to weed our garden and turn
this country around.
Neal Shipman
Double Springs
