To the Editor:
(Canastota, NY – July 2013) I would like to thank town of Lenox Supervisor Rocco DiVeronica for speaking out against the Oneida Nation-New York casino land deal agreement. This will place him on the right side of history. Ray Halbritter, however, will make those Indians that sold Manhattan for sea shells look like champs. Nearly all the homelands of the Oneidas will ultimately fall into federal trust under the Bureau of Land Management.
Note: This does open the door to high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing as fracking is allowed on federal land. Likewise, elected government officials who rushed to support Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s settlement plan have betrayed not only their own constituents but future generations, as well.
At the end of the day, what matters are basic human rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are constitutionally granted and extended to those future generations. Implicit in these rights are clean water, air and land. These rights are trampled on when money trumps democracy, power trumps morality and greed trumps commonsense.
Linda Steffan, Canastota