Clovis Chitwood Heavy Industries

Which may sound a little funny to those who know me because I often find myself playing devil’s advocate for no good reason. I don’t know why I do that. Just plain orneriness I guess. I don’t like being ornery though, it’s not pleasant and puts me and those around me in a foul mood so I try to check that behavior whenever I notice it. But I don’t like even arguing things I actually believe in, things I am passionate about. I guess it’s because I’m lazy. I can think deep if I need or want to but I’m not the exactly quick on my feet, literally or figuratively. In fact I’d much rather be sitting down.

Since I don’t like to debate or argue I don’t collect the little tidbits and factoids that come in handy during a spirited discussion. It doesn’t help that I am not really a detail person. I like to figure out how something works then I don’t have to worry about where all the little nuts and bolts go, I can figure it out later when I have to. That’s not how you persuade someone though. Like quarrying a chunk of marble you persuade someone by picking at one little point. Eventually you get a hole, then you make a bunch more holes. Then you slip in those little L shaped thingees and drop in your other thingee and pound away. Wedges and shims that’s what they’re called. Eventually you’ve separated the marble from the quarry and can get under it with your pry bar and nudge it on out to market. You can’t just grab hold of the chunk of marble and wrest it from the mountain, but that’s about all my skills at disposition allow me to do and just like someone who tries to tear down mountains with their bare hands I usually end up making an ass out of myself.

So I usually just let things pass, things that get in my craw, things that would make me scream if I were alone. But every now and then a conversation casually ends up heading in a cetain direction, I let my guard down, and before I know it I’m calling people commies and inviting people to kiss my fat ass. Not that I don’t actually believe those people are commies or that you really can kiss my fat ass, but that’s no way to win an argument. II know that but once I’m started down that road I can’t stop until I’ve made myself look like a total asshole.

I guess I can live with that, it beats being a commie.

The Honorable Jim Cooper
605 Church Street
Nashville, TN 37219

Dear Representative:

I am writing to ask that you join your colleague Lincoln Davis in cosponsoring and supporting H.R. 2784. A bill that would open more of the continental shelf, from 50 to 200 miles out from the shoreline, for oil exploration. This bill would open up 8.5 billion barrels (potentially 86 billion barrels) of oil for recovery. Eight and a half billion barrels of oil is more than two year of our total oil imports. It is over ten years of our total imports form the Persian Gulf.

It is true that it would take years for this oil to become available, which is all the more reason to get this bill passed as quickly as possible. Just opening this area for drilling would send a message that we are serious about expanding our production and potentially help stabilize this volatile market. I understand that this bill will before the full Appropriations committee soon. I know that you are not on this committee but I ask that you use your considerable influence to see that this bill becomes available for a full house vote.

Respectfully,
Clovis Chitwood
www.clovischitwood.com