By Paul Wintruba, Moon News Cloud Contributor

February 7 has come and gone, and it should be remembered as the day when the Constitution was undermined for monetary gain.

On that evening, over 300 anti-fracking residents of Moon and the surrounding area turned out on Robert Morris University’s Sewall Center. And not one single person from any governmental agency listened to them.  How are we to believe what is told to us by our state and local government when they show not a molecule of compassion for their citizens.

At this meeting, I watched county council’s Rich Fitzgerald play on his smart phone and ignore the conversations that happened around him. He soon left entirely to attend his daughter’s basketball game. When he returned to the meeting, he returned to his smart phone and to his total ignorance of the problems of the people in the room.

I watched one Allegheny County councilman play solitaire on his computer while opposition speakers listed reason after reason that the fracking was dangerous and should be denied. They where concerned for their property, their health, and the health of those that lived around them.

Finally I watched an old woman walk up to the podium. She hung her homemade sign that read  Fracking kills people + other living things” as her statement of support for all the points her neighbors had made.

I saw the presentation from the people from Consol Energy. One man held up a section of piping thinner than a water main line and explained how its technology would keep the deadly chemicals out of the soil. It doesn’t matter that science is stacked against the company, or that their portfolio is full of further proof against them.

Fracking is one of the most invisible controversies that exist in the world today. Millions, or billions, of dollars are taken, given, thrown, and shuffled about for the profit of the few. Most importantly, it is an action of the state government, the local government and the almighty dollar.

We as citizens are blessed with the right to assemble, the right to free speech and the right to vote in our own government officials. We as people also have the right to shout our opinions at rocks, and call out to the grass to grow faster. Is there really a point to have these rights if they are not of value?

If the people of a nation find themselves in a position of futility, where does the value of a meeting like this lie?