Sam Clegg’s recent article (“SSFC right on; ASM muddles on as year end,” April 28) was unprofessional, offensive and inaccurate.
How does an article about SSFC and ASM divert into an attack on CFACT? Do you have an agenda? CFACT publishes campus pricing information to save students’ money, picks up hundreds of pounds of trash every year on campus and broadens ideological diversity.
You left out CFACT’s literature on land trusts, recycling initiatives and NASA scientists’ ecological observations. The portion dedicated to CFACT was based on a single conversation with a non-student representative. Using children’s language to describe one of the largest student groups on campus is unbecoming of an editor.
Here’s a glimpse of what you left out.
Gaylord Nelson’s view was that regulation is the answer to environmental problems, and he used [Earth Day] to push that view. CFACT members understand that government is not the answer to environmental problems, it is likely the cause.
I’ll summarize.
Starting in the mid 19th Century our government, under the influence of the Progressive Era, decided it was in the “public interest” to maximize productive capacity. Protecting property rights from pollution was therefore out of the question. As a result, clean energy, runoff barriers and forensic technology were pushed out of the marketplace as their dirty competitors operated with a “license to pollute” from the government. Nelson thought Federal Government should solve the problems it created.
Modern neoconservatives support command economy and central government, Sam. CFACT is dedicated to free markets and community.
You claim we had a lack of “intellectual integrity within [our] own advocacy…” When did we fall astray from principle? I’d like to know — that kind of criticism is constructive when specific.
Look, CFACT’s eligibility doesn’t matter on its own; our relative eligibility is what we are concerned with. Viewpoint neutrality has precedent in the Supreme Court.
As a counterpoint to government waste, force and taxes, CFACT advocates responsible, voluntary and sustainable methods of environmental stewardship. A system based on a network of voluntary interaction is inherently stable; CFACT proposes we solve environmental issues through the network that is the marketplace.
The implications of the debate between individuality and collectivism are real, and environmental issues are a spearhead. CFACT brings this debate to students at a pivotal point in history.
William Merrick
Economics and psychology
Junior, Campaign Coordinator, CFACT
