An Environmentalist Rant

The Kingston Freeman published my letter on August 28.

Dear Editor:

The Town of Olive is considering a comprehensive plan.  The motivation, debate and the plan itself reflect Olive’s, New York’s and America’s moral and consequent economic decline.

Supervisor Berndt Leifeld told a packed town meeting  and a well-attended Town Board meeting  that the plan need not be taken seriously because its chief purpose is to procure grant money.

Starting with a lack of integrity, the plan was drafted by a politically correct consultant from Beacon who parrots the superstitious and ideologically-driven radical environmental claims of the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and Agenda 21, the globalist United Nations manifesto beloved by Goldman Sachs and DuPont.

The plan should not be so called. It is an environmentalist rant that proposes expensive projects such as a new community center and a new town hall without considering costs, benefits or the effects on taxpayers and homeowners.

More broadly, the plan follows Ulster County’s general commitment to excessive construction costs at the law enforcement center and Golden Hill Health Care facility (which, if authorized, will host 1 percent — 250 -- of Ulster County’s senior citizens at a cost of between $1,000 and $2,000 per Ulster County household -- of which there are about 67,000).

Given President Obama’s parlous economy, it is astonishing that  Leifeld has chosen to propose a reckless spending spree and crackpot regulatory binge without considering that since Congressman Hinchey’s election in 1991, Ulster County’s economy has grown at one third the national average.  The county’s high school and college graduates have been driven to move to states that would not consider ICLEI’s superstitious radical environmentalist claims.

Benjamin Franklin said that America would be a republic — if we can keep it.  The voters of Olive, Ulster County and the United States do not appear to be capable of  keeping a republican form of government.

MITCHELL LANGBERT