More oil. More gas. Less wind...

Charles F. Morris of Hanover, Pa., takes Lancaster Farming and the entire environmental movement to task for blind acceptance of wind power as an energy source of the future. His heartfelt explanations of why everyone is wrong about the wind make for a thought-provoking opinion piece on page A11 of the current issue.

It's easy to dismiss strongly opinionated rants as the work of a fringe element, and you do hear a lot of noise from the fringes, Michael Moore on the left, Rush Limbaugh on the right. But Charles F. Morris of Hanover, Pa., isn't getting paid, we assume, to espouse his point of view. I, for one, respect the fact that he is willing to express his views in such a public forum at a time when those views are so at odds with so much of public opinion.

Is he right? Is he wrong? I don't know. He has certainly done a lot of reading to dig up a host of negative opinion about the perils and unfilled expectations of wind power projects. But he must have come across some positive comments while he was on his hunt for the negative. Should he have balanced his piece with at least some mention of the positive?

Maybe, but you know what? Balance can be so boring. As journalists we're obliged to tell both sides of a story, or all three sides or however many sides there are. Try as we might to juice up a story with personal anecdotes, interesting asides, eye-catching graphics and catchy headlines, telling the whole story in a professional, well-crafted way is, a lot of times, more work than fun.

I hope Mr. Morris had fun while he was writing his piece, I hope hot blood was rushing through his veins while he was doing it and I hope he felt a sense of elation when he pushed the "send" button on his computer. Most of the time when I push the "send" button I feel a sense of mild accomplishment and relief that I'm done with that one. But I have felt the elation and it's a good feeling.

What Mr. Morris did for me is he made me stop and think about this whole wind power thing. While I feel in my gut that he's on the wrong side of the issue, I expect that I'll be reading about alternative energy initiatives from now on with a fresh and, I hope, more objective point of view.

In another opinion piece in the current issue, Tracy Sutton, Lancaster Farming zone editor suggested a new glamour job for recent graduates. How about farming, she asks. It's a thought provoker, too, and it's on page A8 of the current issue.

Butt Bunny takes on a goat...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lun3zgYrMPU