Three headline stories on the front page of the Oct. 30 Morning Sentinel caught my eye. The first was about how the acidification destroying our oceans cannot be prevented for lack of funds, and, of course, gubernatorial support. The second story is about how a town (Rome) doesn’t have enough money to protect itself from lawsuits by companies who want to build cell towers that townspeople don’t want. Imagine that, a company with more money and clout than a whole town.

The third story was the kicker. It appears that a man armed with a knife and robbing a whole bottle of pain killers created a manhunt involving 16 local police officers, a dog and who knows how many state troopers. I noticed in the photo that one of the officers wielded an automatic rifle with a scope. His finger was near the trigger, at the ready. He must have thought the pill robber was going to throw his knife at him from a side street.

It appears that many local towns are broke from lack of funds. They do, however, have lots of cash to lavish on huge, over-reacting police departments modeled after the military.

We don’t have enough money to protect our natural resources or even the people’s wishes. Strange where we do spend our wealth, or what’s left of it.

Peter P. Sirois

Madison