In response to Brad Milligan’s enthusiastic offer for the Koch brothers to invest in Montezuma County (Letters, Journal, Nov. 7) I urge the public to consider if the prospects of unbridled corporate greed and political maneuvering aimed at destroying democracy would really be worth the association.
The Koch brothers believe that the minimum wage is connected to Nazism and terrorism. In their ideal government there would be no Medicare, Medicaid, no food or water safety precautions, no public education or student loans, and no taxes on corporate profits.
His assertion that, “they are leaders in safety and sustainability,” ignores the methods Koch Industries engages in exploiting communities all over the world, and the undisclosed millions they contribute to political campaigns to cull favor have consequences to the kind of environment and lifestyle that will be available to our children.
Economic development in our county should not depend on oligarchs who are perfectly willing to let the air, water and soil be fouled in the interests of a buck. Corporations are not people, and money is not free speech. Koch Industries are the epitome of the wolf in sheep’s’ clothing. Pray they never see Montezuma County as new territory for their brand of “economic development” that has no respect for science, no responsibility to the environment, and no empathy for the common man. Kinder Morgan is flexing its muscles in our county, recently filing a lawsuit against over 20 landowners, basically saying it doesn’t need to negotiate, to put the company’s lines on private property. As big a company as it is, it couldn’t compete with the Koch brothers, who form brutal monopolies in business and pay dark money to buy politicians that will uphold their interests.
Milligan may want to read the, meticulously researched, article in the August 2010 New Yorker, an expose of the Koch family by Jane Mayer. We do need economic development, and a broad-minded vision for our county, but it is better that we take our time to invest in our future, than “sell our souls,” to the likes of the Koch brothers.
Ellen J. Benson
Dolores