D.C. homeless problem part of bigger picture I am a D.C. resident as well as an Occupy DC member. It is very easy to lay all the blame for the large number of homeless on our elected D.C. Council officials. But the ills apparent in the federal government eventually trickle their way down to the federal city.
If the Occupy movement has accomplished anything, it is that the American public is now asking very important questions about the economic conditions that exist in this country and the fact that our elected officials have failed us.
Hopefully D.C. residents will start questioning en masse why there is such income disparity and why the homeless problem is growing.
But beyond questioning comes the actual work of finding solutions, which will not happen without the cooperation of our mayor, council people, activists, and service providers who serve the growing numbers of those in need.
Louise Thundercloud
Washington
Not only football fans take sample ballots
Re: “Loyal football fans make uninformed voters,” From Readers, Nov. 16
Voters clutching “sample ballots” on Election Day is nothing new and proves nothing about how they actually vote or whether they’re loyal football fans as Arlington election official Donna Kepler assumes.
I know I don’t. While I regret the limited options, I research candidates and choose carefully. I hope her claims are baseless, and that she has not violated any voter secrecy rules.
Peter Jeffrey Shomer
Arlington
Case against pipeline is scientifically flawed
Re: “Obama votes ‘present’ on oil pipeline”, Nov. 12
You are completely correct to say that activists want to kill the Keystone XL pipeline because the oil it will be carrying “comes from tar sands, which they believe contributes more to global warming than other energy sources.”
Why else were climate crusaders such as 350.org’s Bill McKibben and NASA’s James Hansen such prominent anti-Keystone protesters?
Sadly, most of the pipeline’s proponents — especially the Canadian and Albertan governments, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and EthicalOil.org — shot themselves in the foot by supporting this politically correct, but scientifically flawed hypothesis.
Taking their talking points from Al Gore and other climate activists while completely ignoring reports (such as the one from the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change) that show that the climate scare is groundless is a recipe for continued failure.
Tom Harris
Executive director,
International Climate Science Coalition
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
