Give the River Back

            Heard a worrisome idea proposed the other day: a farm group spokesman promoting enlarging the locks on the Mississippi to facilitate larger shipments of grain and farm products to world markets. The spokesman complained that problem of 80-year-old, undersized locks and dams, “impacts every farmer.”

            His proposed solution, enlarging them will impact more than farmers, however. He wants the federal government to pay half the multimillion-dollar cost of the project. Yup. Me 'n You. Taxpayers. He made the suggestion shamelessly, as if it is not already a national scandal federal payments going to the biggest farms, corporate ag, whom you can bet your booty are the biggest beneficiaries. 

            The spokesman did not mention who would do this, but you can bet it will be the Army Corps of Engineers. The other thing he did not breathe a word of was the impact of this grand idea on the environment, the river itself. This national resource has already been so greatly altered, it is a fair bet the Indians living along it two hundred years ago wouldn't recognize it.

            Any remotely critical eye/ear will conclude, “Nuff already!”