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Show Let's Hear Both Sides How have the special interest groups in America gotten so much power, especially when they do not represent the majority? Is money their source of power? Is there a limit to the amount of money these groups can contribute to a political candidate and if these candidates are elected, do they feel an obligation to these special interest groups? Does the media give one-sided coverage cov-erage to them? One thing is clear, they are perfectly willing to hurt others to gain what they want. Here in Southern Utah, we are plagued with environmental groups. They say that the harvest of timber in the National Forests damages the ozone and ruins the beauty of the forest. What they don't mention is the fact that the Forest Service replants 10 times the amount of trees that are harvested. har-vested. Also the disease and bugs destroy trees and by harvesting infested in-fested areas, the forest is beautified and new growth is promoted. They say that forest fires should be allowed al-lowed to burn, that this is nature's way to renew the forest. They don't mention the loss of lumber for homes, the loss of wildlife, and they even forget about the ozone. They demand that a huge amount of land be set aside for wilderness; no roads nor multiple use of this land. The pristine beauty of this land should be kept for all Americans. Without roads into the area, how, pray tell, will at least 95 percent of Americans ever get to see this pristine beauty? This proposed wilderness will also tie up large amounts of natural resources; re-sources; coal, natural gas, oil and other minerals. The Mexican Spotted Owl has been used by environmentalists to put hundreds of people out of work. It has been found from Oregon Ore-gon to New Mexico. How can it be so endangered if it can be found in so many places? Even the environmentalists environ-mentalists have realized that the owl's usefulness to them has worn thin; they changed birds. In order to protect these so called sensitive or endangered birds and animals, the Forest Service follows strict guidelines in marking timber for harvest. Common sense tells us that these groups are concerned with something more than preserving a home for the spotted owl, etc. They show no concern at all for the thousands of homeless human beings be-ings in America. From their efforts ef-forts in tying up our natural resources, re-sources, they are heading us in a disastrous dis-astrous direction. Thousands more will become homeless and only the rich will enjoy life as we have it now. Environmentalists have bought property adjacent to the proposed wilderness and the National Na-tional Forest. Do you think they have the public in mind when they try to control these public lands? I think not. We all care about the environment environ-ment and because we do care, many well meaning people are led to believe be-lieve the propaganda and extremist views of the environmental groups. It should be the responsibility of the media to see that both sides of an issue are given to the public. -Kp .. Darlene Sawyer Panguitch, Utah. |