What is happening in our country? Is capitalism destroying itself?

The name of the game seems to be to make as large a profit as possible, no matter what it takes, such as taking lives and cutting corners.

The result seems to be to pay the CEOs huge salaries. The company makes an excessive profit; and in order to do that, it has to cut corners to save money, even at the expense of sacrificing lives and causing disasters.

I call attention to incidents that have happened just in the past year. In every case, safety precautions were ignored somewhere along the line:

• Toyota's recall of thousands of vehicles.

• The coal mine explosion at Massey mines.

• The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

• The explosion and fires during the drilling for gas at Moundsville, W.Va.

• The explosion and fires while drilling for gas in northeastern Pennsylvania.

In all of the above except Toyota, the corporations involved had been cited and fined many times for safety violations. But it is cheaper to pay the fines than to make changes for safety's sake.

Money is the root of all evil.

Pennsylvania is a beautiful state. Drilling for natural gas through the Marcellus Shale will pollute our environment by spewing into our streams and rivers contaminated water, which will kill fish and probably pollute our wells and drinking water.

Corporate America doesn't care. It just wants to make money.

Didn't we learn a lesson about pollution of our waterways from coal stripping in this area?

Some of the school districts in Butler County are considering leasing land to drillers so they can drill for gas in the Marcellus Shale. How would these school districts handle an explosion and fire on their property? How would we handle a forest fire in Cook's Forest?

These drillers will cut corners to make a huge profit and then move on. They are out-of-state companies and care little about the locals.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will not formulate safety rules and regulations regarding gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale until toward the end of this year. I suggest that the DEP place a moratorium on drilling in Pennsylvania until strict regulations are in place. Let's not relive the oil disaster in the Gulf here in Pennsylvania.

The Tea Party is concerned about taxes. No one should kid themselves. BP will leave the fishermen, resort owners and cleanup in the Gulf for others to finance. It happened in Alaska and it will be done again.

So, who will get stuck for the bill in the end? We the taxpayers.

Tea Party protesters should focus on corporate America. It is corporate America that is creating these natural disasters by cutting corners on safety to make excessive profits.

People shouldn't sit back and wait for a disaster to happen in their backyard. Protest and protect.