[Newspoetry] Letter to Ralph Nader

[Nickthe7 at aol.com]

I can't remember if its Edison thats causing the Earth Day protests in chicago, If I'm wrong and its someone else, let me know before this newspoem gets published. Otherwise I think all my sources are correct.

Also, does anyone know Ralph Nader's mailing address?

I'm home for spring break without my computer, after this sunday, my e-mail address is naberve at ilstu.edu


Letter to Ralph Nader
Nick Berveiler

Dear Ralph Nader,

I hear you are coming to Illinois,
I am a huge fan of your work!
I am certain you will be treated well in our green community.
Not only do I welcome you to my state,
I have some concerns you might be interested in.

Like the rest of Amerika, we are forcibly too heavily influenced by Texas.
Here in Illinois we have a Texas corporation disguised by the name Illinois Power 
who proposes to take away 
the rights to our trees
and call it a tariff.

I just read in the Trib that Texas still hasn’t been paying attention 
to their prison issue, they can’t even hire enough good people
to guard dangerous people in prisons they want to make overcrowded.

I don’t have time to tell Texas what they are doing wrong,
but they have the money to tell us how they can make a profit.

In some states, people who care about trees are considered terrorists 
and our concern is supposedly organized crime.
People in Chicago are being turned off on Earth Day,
because Edison thinks they can be paid environmentalist experts.
We are not the ELF, but there are some who might be willing to spend 10 years in jail
to save trees. 
We don’t want it to come to that.

Texas seems to think they know enough about the environment 
to be in charge of our trees.

While we are beginning to collect signatures to oppose Illinois Power,
While we are looking for alternative energy,
While we are fighting sweatshop abuse,
While we are fighting predatory loans,
While we are fighting to get rid of “the chief”,
While we are working to end the death penalty,
While we are working to build human rights at home,
While we are concerned citizens…

We are forced to defend ourselves against every power company corporation in Illinois,
We are forced to defend ourselves from Texas, who can’t even take care of themselves,
We are forced to have little say in campaign finance reform.

Does people before profits get any simpler?
We need your help,
Will you join IPCUTSOT?
Will you intervene and tell the ICC how poorly corporations are treating us?
We can win these battles, but we need your support.
I have not heard anything at the national level, or even from the Chicago Tribune about this issue.
There are more people who listen to you than people who listen to me.
Sometimes, I feel intimidated from speaking out.

I’ll do my best to help you get into the debates next time,
you can help us get our state more organized!

Sincerely, 
Nick Berveiler