[Vision2020] My Column / Megaloads & Hippies

[Paul Rumelhart]

I'm literally heading out in an hour on a four-day long trip, but I just 
wanted to clarify something here.

On 06/09/2011 08:40 AM, Art Deco wrote:
> The Henry Johnsons and people of similar ilk who say of the oil sands 
> projects "It is not my business, I don't live there" and do nothing 
> are not much different from those who would ignore a child with 
> gasoline and matches.  Due to the blasé ignorance and arrogance of the 
> pro-megaloaders, the eminent danger of  the oil sands projects is not 
> so temporally and visibly near as a field fire, but in the long run 
> the oil sands projects are much more likely to have long range, wide 
> spread, extremely adverse impacts than a child dying and a 
> neighborhood being destroyed in a field fire.

I don't know about Henry, but I'm not saying "it's not my business, I 
don't live there" about the oil sands project.  I'm saying that it 
should have nothing to do with whether or not we allow megaloads to 
travel our highways.  In the same vein, the waiter at Starbucks should 
not refuse to sell coffee to the people driving the trucks and the local 
motels should not refuse to allow them to stay there, all in the name of 
saving the people affected by the Kearl oil sands project.

I'm all for everyone here going to the Imperial Oil main offices and 
protesting what they are doing.  I just don't think that trying to stop 
them from moving down the road merely because the chance to do so has 
fallen into our laps is the right thing to do.  If they fail the permit 
process, fine.  But to restrict their movements only because they are an 
evil corporation goes against the idea of public highways in the first 
place.  Open that door, and you'll regret it.

Paul
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