Perspectives

Did you wake up one day and decide to sell out? Or was it a gradual descent into equivocations and half-truths? We’re all born unvarnished, so to speak. We come into the world clean, and real life either works its magic or casts its spell. Arguably, life is one accommodation after another. It is. We accept (we must) in ourselves and others that we are not perfect, but that acknowledgment is leavened by some sort of internal “line” that cannot be crossed. And short of doing whatever it takes, for example, to save one’s child, no pressures or enticements could ever get a person to cross that line. That said, crooks, grifters, shysters, frauds, Ponzi scheme operators, corporate malefactors, vultures, hacks and lobbyists are entitled, by law, to congressional representation. Both angels and sinners alike, soccer moms and environmental desecrators have, theoretically speaking, equal access to their congressman’s door. But we intuitively understand that is not reality.

What makes a congressman do the bidding of a corporation? Corporations have legitimate concerns that government regulations/oversight will adversely affect their profitability. I get that. But when does corporate profitability trump public interest? Rather, when does corporate profitability not trump pubic interest? Time and time again, we witness the public interest, our welfare, compromised by congressional quislings. A congressman by any other name…

I address this question to Republican John Mica and Democrat Nick Rahall of West Virginia. Congressmen Mica and Rahall recently introduced H.R. Bill 2018 — Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011 — and the goal is, “To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to preserve the authority of each state to make determinations relating to the state’s water quality standards, and for other purposes.”

This bill is little more than a gutting of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Rahall represents the interests of coal companies that want a blank check in order to continue mountaintop mining that poisons West Virginia’s rivers and environment. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency wants to check this ecological tragedy. Mica’s bill would, for all intents and purposes, prevent that.

Congressman Mica, according to a July 15 New York Times’ editorial, is “angry at the E.P.A.’s recent crackdown on the agricultural pollutants that are destroying the Everglades.” Mica, in other words, wants to gut the EPA’s ability to protect Florida’s Everglades? Whose interests are being promoted? Florida agricultural corporations should be allowed an unfettered license to continue destroying our water, our environment? Those are your values, Congressman Mica? He’ll argue the trampling of state’s rights.

I called and talked with Justin Harclerode, communications director for Mica’s House committee overseeing this bill. I asked him point-blank the morality of such actions. He clearly and patiently (and politely) explained his boss’ position: This is not about gutting the E.P.A. It’s about returning the state’s power over their water resources. The reality? Poisoned water, land and air.

This isn’t about state’s rights. That’s a cop-out. This is a sellout to corporate paymasters.

Chris, you’re too idealistic. Governing is compromise. But are there not lines not to be crossed? I am reminded of the famous question from the 1954 McCarthy hearings: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

Et tu, John Mica?

Jepson is a 24-year resident of Florida. He’s fiscally conservative, socially liberal, likes art and embraces diversity of opinion. Reach him at [email protected]