Democracy is Fleeting in America;
The Iraq War and Liberty Quarry

Stewart A. Alexander for President
Peace and Freedom Party
Socialist Party USA

September 21, 2007

When I think of the Iraq War and Liberty Quarry there are two similarities between one and the other; they both represent a gigantic pit and Americans are being excluded from crucial decisions that will affect their lives and the lives of their children for decades.

Liberty Quarry is a planned quarry site that will be located in southern California on the southwest corner of Riverside County and the northwest corner of San Diego County; it is the fastest growing region in the United States. The quarry will be owned and operated by Granite Construction, Inc. and will be one of the largest open pit mines in the nation. This quarry will be located next to several communities with a combined population of more than 300 thousand people.

A grassroots citizen action committee, Save Our Southwest Hills (SOS), is leading the charge against the multi-billion dollar corporation Granite Construction. The small group has charged that opening a 155 acre quarry is not right for the local communities. The greatest concern of SOS and local residents will be the possibility of exposure to deadly silica dust.

SOS is also concerned about the increased traffic the quarry will bring to the area. There will be up to 1,500 dump trucks servicing Liberty Quarry and the local communities are presently experiencing serious traffic congestion that regional and state officials have failed to resolve. Within the past decade traffic in the area has increase by more than 400 percent.

Liberty Quarry will operate 20 hours a day using explosives to remove granite rock. The quarry, which will be located on 311 acres, will be next to a 4,300 acre nature ecological reserve operated by San Diego State University.

Granite Construction has embarked on a propaganda campaign to sway public opinion to accept Liberty Quarry; it is a campaign that is more than questionable. Company literature presents the quarry to be cleaner than most up-scale neighborhoods in Southern California.

Representatives for Granite Construction wants the public to believe that an additional 1,500 trucks coming into these communities will not increase air pollution; and moving 250 million tons of granite will not pollute the air with silica dust. The company’s representatives also want the public to believe the mine will improve the quality of living for the general community.

California’s two top executives, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi have remained silent on this most important issue that will impact the lives of millions of people in Southern California. The five members on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors are ignoring the growing community concerns regarding the planned quarry.

Symbolically to what Liberty Quarry will become, Iraq is a pit that has been created by President Bush, the Democrats and Republicans and the pit is getting deeper everyday. Americans have sent Democrats and Republicans to Washington in hopes of ending the Iraq War; however the voices of Americans are being ignored.

President Bush is projecting that the US will remain in Iraq for decades in opposition to a national majority of Americans that want the troops back home. The president is saying our presence in Iraq is for the good of the Iraqi people and the US; however the war is creating death and destruction, destroying the nation of Iraq, and is creating a severe strain on the working class in America.

In the grand scheme of events President Bush, the Democrats and Republicans are only protecting the interest of the world petroleum giants; and as the events unfold around Liberty Quarry we see local Democrats and Republicans protecting the interest of the capitalist over the democratic needs of local communities and working class people.

This is the reality of what is happening in America today; the two corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans are excluding Americans out of the democratic process on important decisions that will affect our lives, in our communities, the nation and the world.

Liberty Quarry and the Iraq War are testing democracy in America. Will the people in Southern California get a quarry they do not want or will the fate of these communities be left in the hands of five Riverside County Supervisors? On the bigger issue of Iraq, will the Democrats and Republicans have the resolve to end the Iraq War and bring our troops home, or will our fate as a nation be left in the hands of one man?

For more information search the Web for: Stewart A. Alexander for President; Socialist Presidential Candidates at America’s Crossroads.

nolibertyquarry.com
StewartAlexanderCares.com/
www.vote-socialist.org/
peaceandfreedom-sjv.org/home/
www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061022/news_lz1nc22quarry.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_United_States_third_party_presidential_candidates