Do What I Say

Hypocrisy is part of politics. Politicians are well versed at preaching their beliefs on residents even though they themselves do not practice what they preach. Candidates themselves normally avoid this faux pas by making sure they do everything they are promising with the hope they can get voters to notice them and hopefully flip the lever in their favor. Some candidates are willing to say anything just to get elected, but who those candidates are is up to the voters to decide.

With gas prices at some of their all time highs and other forms of power on the rise, it was inevitable that the conversations on "Green" technologies would start to crop up. We believe that these conversations are long overdue which tends to make the WayneWho staff question the timing of the discussions. As we have been keeping up with some of the local publications where the candidates have been priming their platform, we have read a great deal about the promise of going "Green" from a couple of candidates. Byron Hennecy and Judy Roberston have both gone to great lengths to explain the benefits of going "Green" and how much better life would be if everyone drove a hybrid car.

Their answer it seems to our community's problems is that everyone should go out and go deeper into debt to buy a hybrid car. If the gas prices continue to rise by at least another dollar, then all of our residents might actually start to see some saving versus the expense of the actually hybrid vehicle itself. At the same time our county would have to raise taxes to offset the loss in gas tax revenue they are supposed to be using to fix our roads since people would be buying less gas. So any savings on gas would be made up for in taxes. Cause and effect. It is the one concept every politician should understand.

How much do these candidates believe in their own platforms? What kind of hybrid vehicles do they drive? How many carbon offsets have they purchased to show us the error of our ways? Well, Mr. Hennecy's campaign vehicle that he drives to work at the county everyday is a Chevy Suburban which on good day gets about 15 mpg. We have not been able to confirm Mrs. Robertson's vehicle, but we have received several e-mails that it is another SUV. There are no records of their campaigns buying carbon offsets or them buying them on their own. Practice what you preach.

We would like to point out that we are excited about the "Green" conversations now taking place. But these conversations are ones that must be taken seriously and not just cut-and-past off of some "Green" activists website and then used as a platform to win an election. The impact to our community of going "Green" has both positive and negative impacts that politicians must understand long before we try to force the citizens to pay for the changes. While going "Green" might make the government some "Green" we need to remember whose "Green" it is we are actually taking. (You try writing a line like that.)