They Get Letters

And we review them. It's been a while since I've done a "Herald letter to the editor" post. There are a few good ones today so here goes:

As a Miami Senior High School teacher, I find Sarah Palin's July 16 Other Views commentary, We can control our energy, to be articulate and eloquent -- I don't believe that she could have written it.

However, Palin (and her ghost writer) miss the point of Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan. Alaska and its leaders profit from our nation's reliance on dirty fossil fuels because their state happens to have a lot of the stuff. They have everything to gain by preventing a green-energy economy from emerging.

Cap-and-trade's main objective is not economic stimulus. Its main goal is to curb greenhouse gas emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels. It will accomplish this by rewarding nonpolluting energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal) and by penalizing dirty fuels (natural gas, oil, coal).

What science has shown us is that we are toying with our climate in an unprecedented way. We may be threatening our own survival and that of countless other species if we continue on this course.

NATANIELA GEORGIADIS, Miami

Perhaps it's the science you want to see, Ms. Georgiadis. When your utility bills skyrocket, as so many people say it will if cap and trade passes, you can come back and complain about how smart and articulate Ms. Palin's ghost writer is (sheesh). One more thing: I hope you're presenting both sides of the issue to your Miami High students.

Nix Zelaya, embargo

I agree with the 17 Republican senators who sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her and the Obama administration to support the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

They point out that ``we should at least ask ourselves if we are right when we find ourselves on the side of Chávez, Castro and Ortega''.

We should ask ourselves if we are right when later this year the United Nations General Assembly votes for the umpteenth time on the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Will we again find ourselves alone or on the side of Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands (with all due respect for these loyal allies)? Or will we go against the good sense of many of our most valued partners in the world?

JOSE MANUEL PALLI, Coral Gables

Next time, Mr. Palli, please try to use a little more moral equivalence to make your argument, OK?