Pope wise about Highlands Act

Thursday, January 10, 2008
Letter to the Editor
The Observer-Tribune

In his New Year's peace message, Pope Benedict advised, "For the human family, home is the earth, the environment that God the Creator has given us to inhabit with creativity and responsibility. Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. It is important for (environmental) assessments to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions. Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment."

The Highlands farmers must invite the pope to advise the Legislature in connection with the Highlands Act. He might tell them the wood turtle and Indiana bat, while God's creatures, are not more important than Highlands man.

He might tell them that all should heed the needs and concerns of those who tend the Highlands land, and to discount the conclusions of junk science experts. He might tell them to recognize it was the pressures of the environmental lobbyists that too hastily passed the unconstitutional Highlands Act.

He might say a just distribution of the costs of environmental protection requires immediate, not postponed, legislation to fund just compensation for harmed Highland landowners. He might even tell them that it would be prudent to repeal the Highlands Act and draft a wiser, more humanly responsible environmental covenant.

Deborah Post

Chester