Letter of the Week: 1872 Mining Law

Dear Senator,

The 1872 Mining Law needs to be changed. It consistently favors the interests of large, often foreign companies over the interests of local Arizona landowners. It subsidizes the give-away of over $1 billion in publicly-owned minerals every year.

My family and I are directly affected by dust blowing off the numerous open-pit mines in Pima county, and what really irks me is the thought that my tax dollars are funding this irresponsible exploitation of our God-given natural heritage.

This land is held in trust by our government so that everyone can use it, but when these companies come in with their mines they just use it up. Although we often hear that these mines are creating jobs in our local communities, the reality is that these corporations will leave us high and dry when the minerals run out.

We need an updated mining law that considers the valid interests of local landowners as well as the interests of economic development. I plan to watch your action on this issue as a kind of litmus test for who you really support; is it the local landowners trying to make a living in Arizona or is it the big corporate interests at their government-sponsored pig trough?

Farm Bill Letter

Senator,

I am very concerned about the upcoming vote on the Farm Bill. I consider the existing farm bill a prime example of government "pork". The basic issue is whether we, the American consumers, should be allowed to choose which food and which farmers to support.

This is a very important issue, one that we are confronted with every week at the supermarket. Government subsidies have made it cheaper to buy Coca-cola than local apple juice. Why the government would want to promote corn syrup while we are in the midst of a diabetes crisis boggles my mind.

Please stay out of my dinner. Let the market decide which foods are produced (that's what capitalism is good at). By all means provide funding to retrain farmers who were dependent on subsidies, and put tariffs on imports from countries that lack our environmental and labor standards. But let us, the American people, choose how to spend our own money.

Thank you.

Conor Flynn