To the Editor:

In these difficult times it is of critical importance that government take actions that will improve the lives of all Americans.

There are certain actions that Congress can take that would generate results highly beneficial to the people of the mainstream.

These are what I see as some of the most needed governmental actions: (1) make environmental protection the top priority in all governmental activities; (2) create a prohibition against war; (3) control energy prices so as to create fair access to energy consumption; (4) ban the feeding of waste animal fat to food animals and establish a food contaminants monitoring program designed to insure that accidental contamination incidents do not lead to the poisoning of Americans; (5) establish public educational outreach on the subject of pollutant exposure minimization with an initial focus on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) exposure minimization; (6) prohibit the involvement of corporations in political campaigns and in community affairs; and (7) establish a process for investigating allegations of unethical behavior by members of government, establish a means whereby strong penalties can be imposed upon those found to have acted in an unethical manner and produce a readily accessible record of these investigations and penalties.

As an initial step, the proposed actions need to be discussed in an open public forum.

Congressional race discussions are a wonderful vehicle for bringing about such discourse.

Resistance to change can be overcome by people talking in public about the needed changes.

I invite Congressman William Owens and candidate Doheny to discuss the matters listed above as well as any other matters that they consider to be of equal significance to the betterment of people’s lives.

I will make all arrangements for a conference line so as to make possible our telephone discussion.

The conference call will be open to the members of the news media and interested residents of the 23rd Congressional District of New York.

I believe that the 2012 congressional race can be an avenue for bringing new ways of living on the scene for all of us.

These are exciting times of great challenges and great opportunities to move higher on the path of human development.

I believe that positive energy and love will create a whole new world in a relatively short period of time. We are about to experience a beautiful revolution.

Donald L. Hassig, Director Cancer Action NY candidate for the 21st Congressional District