The clean-coal lobby has responded to my Sept. 1 letter about clean-coal technology.

Lisa Camooso Miller, a media relations professional (aka corporate propagandist), points to the improvements in emissions and the money spent, much of it government project funds (letter, Sept. 15).

Considering the baseline the industry started from 30 years ago, improvement is surely not too much to expect. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, coal-fired power plants still contribute a major portion of atmospheric pollution, and the practical implementation and feasibility of clean-coal technology within the industry is still far in our future.

Then there was M.D. Harmon’s recent column in which he reported his “pleasant surprise” about the notorious anti-Obama film “2016: Obama’s America.”

Unlike most who have seen this film (overall viewer rating: a bomb at 5.1 out of 10, IMDB) Harmon bought it hook, line and sinker.

In particular, he seems to agree with the neocon charge that Obama adopted his father’s (a man he met only once when he was 10) anti-colonial worldview.

When exactly did anti-colonialism become offensive?

I know colonialism is a keystone of the ultra-right neocons of the Republican Party who are bored silly without a war for resources somewhere in the world.

But do the rest of us believe in the wonderfulness of colonialism?

Perhaps we should ask the former victims of English, French, German, Belgian, and Italian colonialism in Africa and Asia.

Or we could ask our own American Indians, native Hawaiians, or the people of the Philippines about their experiences with American colonialism.

Or we could dissect our more recent desire to colonize-by-control in Vietnam, Iraq and other countries.

Is Obama, like our founding fathers, anti-colonial?

We can only hope and pray that he is.

Paul W. Dutram

Waterville

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