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Document 42 of 110.

May 31, 2000, Wednesday

SECTION: Editorial; Ed. Final; Pg. 35A

LENGTH: 1223 words

HEADLINE: LETTERS PAGE

BODY:

Forest Service settling for 'same old, same old'

Those of us who have been working for years to preserve our national forests have often heard U.S. Forest Service officials claim that they are on our side. They claim that they want to manage for ecological diversity, but that the politicians keep pressuring them to increase the annual allowable timber cut. The current debate over President Clinton's roadless proposal exposes this "poor us" myth.

The political will is to preserve the last roadless areas, and the Forest Service is once again claiming to be listening, but, as always, from inside the back pocket of the timber industry. After hundreds of hearings where Forest Service managers heard that the majority of the public want all roadless areas preserved (not only from roads but from logging and off-road vehicle abuse) the USFS has decided on the same old, same old. In other words, those of us who attended the hearings and made presentations were wasting our breath. Now we are asked to comment on the current plan before July 17. I urge concerned citizens to write to the president and urge him to make true roadless protection his legacy. George W. Bush has proposed privatizing all public lands, so this needs to be implemented before November.

Let the Forest Service know that you expect true conservation by writing it at roadless.fs.fed.us. Copy your comments to the president at president@whitehouse.gov and to U.S. Rep. Mark Udall at www.house.gov / markudall / and Sen. Wayne Allard at www.senate.gov / -allard / (Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell has taken so much money from the timber industry that contacting him would be a waste of time.)

If we don't do this now, we'll lose the chance forever. With so few roadless areas left, it is already too little, but we can make sure it isn't also too late.

Naomi Rachel

Boulder

Strong German economy is what Europe needs

Regarding the recent editorial "A plea for German troops": Jewish people around the world must be in shock at hearing that Western NATO countries, including the U.S., "are demanding that the Germans abandon their underfunded, inefficient conscript military in favor of a lean, mean professional fighting machine capable of intervening in external conflicts, like Bosnia and Kosovo. They should do all they can to stop this dangerous development. The world has already been there, done that with Germany's military might.

The Cold War is over; we won. President Kennedy was right when he said that if we carried on long enough, the Soviet Union would collapse. And that's exactly what happened, although everybody is trying to take credit now. And maybe we should. The long-awaited "peace dividend" is now coming on line in the form of federal surpluses.

All of this is possible only because of the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the resulting cutbacks in our defense budget. And we are still spending too much on defense. We should bring our troops home from Europe, for instance, before we are asked to leave.

Thanks to us, nations all across Europe are downsizing their militaries, while competing with us in the world market. And now that the European Union talks boldly of creating its own strike force, as pointed out in the editorial, it's obvious that Europe can hold its own now and we are wasting our time and money over there. Germany should not be encouraged to once again become a "lean, mean professional fighting machine," but fulfill its historic function of being Europe's economic engine on a peaceful continent.

Peter Girruh

Denver

How about policy that brings about freedom?

In the May 20 article on the so-called reform of the School of the Americas, Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., repeated the Army's 10-year-old defense: "We're not talking about closing down Harvard because the Unabomber went there." The fact left out is that Harvard has never displayed a picture of the Unabomber on its wall of fame. On the other hand, the School of the Americas has posted such "honored" graduates as Gen. Hector Gramajo of Guatemala even after they were identified as leaders of the slaughter of Mayan Indians.

The sad reality is that the Army's bogus argument about there only being a "few bad apples" among the school's graduates has worked. Thus, we will keep in operation a renamed school that has been more effective in laundering South American drug money through Georgia banks than in raising respect for real democracy in Latin America. And we will continue the policy it represents of U.S. hegemony in the region by means of indigenous military force.

How about a new policy that might bring about some of that "freedom" we always talk about? Like freedom for workers to organize freely and the freedom to direct their own economies rather than them being subsidiaries of multi-national corporate powers whose profits trickle down only to a small number of the elite.

Bob Kinsey

Peace and Justice Task Force

Rocky Mountain Conference

United Church of Christ

Arvada

Voters smart enough to make good decisions

The News recently reported that America's trade deficit widened to an all-time high of $30.2 billion in March. What I don't understand is why this important information merited only a 1 1/2-inch article on page 2 of the Business section.

I remember back in 1992 when the Democratic presidential candidate, Bill Clinton, was running against the incumbent Republican, George Bush. The trade deficit was a huge issue and Bush was being held responsible. The Democratic candidate said he was going to rectify this problem for America's future generations.

Well, here it is eight years and two terms later and the trade deficit is at an all-time high! Why isn't this being reported with the same gusto as it was back in 1992?

It appears to me that the difference is in how our news media treat Democratic candidates vs. Republican candidates. It is too bad that the news can't be reported simply as "the news," instead of manipulated as a political tool.

I believe most people would rather make up their own mind based on the facts. We are smart enough to make good decisions without being manipulated.

Jerry Daskam

Elizabeth

Preserving freedom

William Henderson, having never met the "sad and pathetic" members of Freedom From Religion Foundation, must find all who support the separation of church and state "sad and pathetic" (May 13 letter, "Thorn in the flesh").

The Freedom From Religion Foundation exists for one reason: to support Thomas Jefferson's sentiment, which created religious freedom for every American.

Without separation of church and state, America could end up with a mainstream state religion. Religion once controlled government: It was called the Dark Ages.

If it requires "sad and pathetic" people to support the separation of church and state, could me as one of them.

Richard O. Grimes

Denver

Scary fact about guns

In my 20-plus years as a police officer, I found that one fact never changed: All felons, without exception, laugh at more restrictive gun laws. As I was told many times: "Hey man, we can always get a gun. Gun laws don't apply to us."

Scary, isn't it?

Neil Cantwell

Grand Junction

NOTES:
LETTERS PAGE

LOAD-DATE: June 1, 2000

Document 42 of 110.


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