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Show So, It Won't Affect You? About a month ago I wrote a letter in our local paper in which I outlined the effects of a mill closure clo-sure here in Panguitch andor in Escalante. Maybe I was expecting something different than what I got, but to say the least, I received little, if no, response. Two people let me know that yes I was right and they appreciated appreci-ated what I had to say. If we, as a community and county, response in this manner to our state and federal feder-al representatives then we are in for sad times. In fact we might as well pack up and leave for Las Vegas Ve-gas today because in six months from now 73 families here in the Panguitch area will be out of work. Well, you say, this won't affect me because I work for the State Roads or the County or I teach school; better yet I'm retired. It won't hurt me. Wanna bet, People? Here are some facts and I'll let you figure out the rest In 1990, the National Forest System produced total revenue of $1,375,471,000. for schools and roads nationally. That's billion, not million, folks. Do you still want to tell me that you school teachers, county and state road crews won't be affected? There were 105,583 jobs generated gener-ated by timber sales with a total income of $3,257,263,000. Billion, again. Another fact is that while ' taxes and other revenues are de- . creasing because of the restrictions - put on the harvest of timber, demand de-mand is going up every day for more and better schools, roads and life in general. These restrictions are costing the public a lot of money. Wood products are going sky-high even as I write this. Where do you suppose the government gov-ernment is going to get the money to make up for these losses? You got it, retired people. They're going go-ing to cut your programs for you plus you're going to pay more taxes because I, and other middle-class middle-class workers, won't be here to pay them for you. I understand that we as a county have a $5 million school bond to pay off. Who's going to pay for this bill if the two mills close their doors plus all the other jobs that will be lost because of these closures. I received my information from Loggers World magazine, Volume 27. They got their information from the United States Forest Service. Ser-vice. The last point I'm going to make is: why are we, as a nation, letting such a small number of people run our lives? It looks to me that we're turning from a democratic society to a socialistic government, where only a handful of people have the say and the rest do as they're told. My reasoning is simple. There are about 200 members of the Friends of the Dixie environmental environmen-tal group, only about six of whom are active. Through their greed they have been able to lock up every sale that the Forest Service has offered this past year. Tell me how six self-centered, selfish do-gooders do-gooders can get this much power? They won't bargain, they simply want the forests here in southern Utah locked up for their own use, and to hell with the rest of us. Should we let them do as their chairman told Wayne Owens in Salt Lake City? "If people in Garfield County need jobs, let them go to Las Vegas." It sounds as if hell is where they want us all to go, after all. When you hear the joke about the little boy who asks his brother where milk comes from and he's told that it comes from the grocery gro-cery store, don't laugh. A lot of people now days think you can kill the cow and still have the milk. We, as a nation and world, need natural resources to progress. It's as simple as that. Believe it! Wallace R. Veater Panguitch, Utah |