Lance Reynolds’ April 20 “Environmental vandals deflate tires of 43 SUVs in Beacon Hill” was a really good news article. Why? It did an excellent job of explaining two points of view about a controversial issue without taking sides. The tires of several dozen luxury SUVs, none of which had handicapped plates, were deflated at some point before the morning of April 20. A group identifying itself as the “Tyre Extinguishers” left a leaflet that explained the climate and pollution impacts of SUVs.
Can vandalism ever be OK? Here is some background. SUVs aren’t governed by the pollution laws for cars. Why? Thanks to auto-industry lobbying, they are classified as trucks. Automakers managed to get Transportation Department regulators to agree that any vehicle with a weight greater than 6,000 pounds was used for commercial purposes or farming, not going to the store for a gallon of milk.
The result? The average mileage of US passenger vehicles has gone down, not up, with 50% of new vehicles sold being SUVs. These vehicles will put more than 4.4 billion tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over their lifetimes.
It was 97 degrees here on April 14. We’re living in an overheated world built by fossil-fuel corporations and their lobbyists. However you feel about the Tyre Extinguishers, federal regulators need to get rid of the lobbyists’ loophole that encouraged American passenger vehicles to get so big.
M. J. Else
South Hadley
This group goes around the country committing random vandalism by deflating tires of SUVs because they emit too many gases into the air.
This is nothing but vandalism that if you were caught doing it “back in the day “ you were locked up. Now it’s “ nothing to see here”. Maybe they should gain access to Kerry’s jet and let the air out of its tires
Stephen Lynch
Middleton
t’s bad enough that Massachusetts has legalized sports gambling allowing people to use credit cards and debit cards. But now the idea to allow people to play the lottery is even dumber. Currently you cannot use credit or debit cards to play the lottery in person so why should you be allowed to online?
Paul J. Baranofsky
Waltham
I am an independent voter with libertarian instincts. I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans in past presidential elections, but kept my vote in my pocket during the last two contests. I could not even hold my nose and cast a vote in 2016 and 2020. If President Biden and quondam President Trump are the standard-bearers again, I will reprise my decision with extreme regret. Many talented and vigorous natural-born Americans of proper age are available, some even in the professional political class, but specific electoral dynamics on both sides may put the same-old, same-old right back on the ballot. And same-old is inadequate. And dangerous for our nation. Won’t someone of distinction hear an old man’s cry?
Paul Bloustein
Cincinnati, Ohio