Weekly Column:   –  “Property rights are a fundamental freedom in our great country, and I work very hard in the U.S. Congress to see that the federal role in acquiring, owning and administering public lands is as limited as possible.  I voiced strong opposition, for example, to the legislation which was passed last month to acquire 2,000,000 acres of additional federal land – on top of the 650,000,000 acres already owned by the U.S. government.

Other times, however, there is an express need for a federal facility.  Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, has been the center of controversy for years despite the fact that the nation very much needs a secure depository for the storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel and other radioactive waste.  For years, opponents of new construction from better roads to this federal nuclear depository have been known by the acronym NIMBY – Not In My BackYard.

Well, it appears that BANANA is the new NIMBY – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.  I can understand wanting an unspoiled view out your kitchen window, and private property rights are to me some of the most sacred in American law.  But those who oppose much-needed public projects aren’t motivated by property rights, they simply dig in their heels against progress.

BANANAs take prohibitions against new construction to the extreme.  Highway improvements, flood protection, business expansions and economic improvements all find themselves subject to opposition today from people who want nothing built, anywhere – even far from their own homes.  For reasons ranging from the environmental to opposition to trade, BANANAs are intense in their distaste for most all new economic activity.

But if we are to rebuild the American economy and strengthen its core elements in rural America – manufacturing and agriculture – we must build exactly these kinds of projects.  The roads, bridges, rails and rivers that handle billions of dollars of American commerce are in dramatic need of repair and renewal.  The men and women who travel these thoroughfares, not to mention those who work on them, need safer infrastructure.  And the jobs that these projects are sure to create are a way through difficult economic times for families facing some dire struggles right now.

Furthermore, the energy infrastructure projects on our horizon promise a stable, lower-cost supply of electricity for our future.  Energy concerns are one of the leading considerations of any manufacturing operation interested in relocating or expanding.  We need to be sure that the grid in place can support any business looking to invest in Southern Missouri.

Along the Mississippi River, flood control projects protect lives and property.  In communities where Americans have lived for years in tandem with the river, the relationship can be strained.  Floods force many families to cope with water in their homes pretty much every year.  Instead of a school bus, children are picked up on trucks that can handle the high water.  Opponents of flood control projects insist that fish have to swim and spawn, but they won’t accept any balance in their view to accommodate residents along the river. 

There is only one thing to say about the hardheaded opposition to good construction projects that can grow jobs and create much-needed economic activity in our region right now – it’s bananas.”