Letter to the Editor: Non-Peters Township Residents Should Not Change Our Home Rule Charter

Recently a group of extreme environmentalist lawyers invaded Peters Township and pressured the Washington County Election Commission to place a referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot to take away private property rights.

Using common “divide and conquer tactics” typical of the left, these outsiders unfortunately succeeded in placing on our ballot the banning of natural gas development on private property.

Many lawyers are wreaking this same havoc across the United States. Their goal is to de-industrialize America in order to expand economic destruction and poverty, furthering the Obama far left-wing agenda.

The reason our country is on the decline is because so many have been conned into the “environmental” movement—to the extreme extent of dismantling all industry, and as a result eliminating jobs and economic opportunity.

We certainly need to be good stewards of the earth and the magnificent environment with which God our creator has blessed us. The problem is with going to extremes.

Do we decline from eating dinner because we will dirty a pan and maybe a few dishes? Do we not go to work because our car may emit carbon dioxide into the air? Do we not take our kids or grandkids to swing on the swings because they will exhale carbon dioxide and “contribute to global warming?”

Do we not watch Fox News or read a book because the generation of electricity causes a byproduct of carbon dioxide? It is to this radical extreme the left has taken us—and it must stop now.

Tip O’Neil once said “all politics is local” meaning, as our local community policies go, so goes the nation.

America is great because its made up of many small, great individual communities such as Peters Township—where residents are fed up with lawyers in Washington, D.C. dictating how we will live our lives, and what rules we will adopt in our home rule charters.

No more my friends!

We must individually, and collectively, as Peters Township, take a stand on this issue and may the shot be “heard around the world.”

We will act in accordance with the U.S. and PA Constitutions, and our home rule charter as it exists. We won’t be bullied or commandeered by outside lawyers who are not even residents, and should have no interest in how we live. Their interest is tyranny over us.

If natural gas was discovered on my property that could be developed to enrich my family, I would be happy, as would any human being (including the outside lawyers, you can be sure.).

If a neighbors struck natural gas, I may wish it were me, but must not be envious and would not expect any of my neighbors to be envious of my owning such a valuable mineral.

I certainly would not by any means attempt to rob my neighbor of the minerals they owned on their private property. Furthermore, it has been well proven that developing natural gas is creating and sustaining livelihoods in Washington County to the point that we are a beacon to the rest of America for job growth.

Lastly, denying drilling rights would be illegal and would create expensive litigation for Peters Township. Thus "we the people" have the opportunity to put the matter to rest and preserve our tax dollars.

So please join me in sending a message to the extreme environmentalists and Washington, D.C. that Peters Township will not be bullied by outside lawyers and other influences who do not reside in Peters Township; ergo have no stake whatsoever in our Home Rule Charter.

Please be sure to speak your mind and vote “NO” on ballot initiative Tuesday, Nov. 8.

-Peters resident Gary Cummings

Editor's Note: Please send all letters to andrea.bosco@patch.com.