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Show Another Kind Of Terrorism Americans and peace-loving people worldwide have been shaken by the Sept. 1 1 senseless act of terrorism on America. As horrible and tragic as this has been, I believe America will rally, strengthen her borders, renew her alliances and move on to make the world a safer more peaceful place to live. As sinister as this act of terrorism ter-rorism was, it was far less devastating dev-astating than the attacks that have been made by domestic terrorists from within America for the past 20 years. Domestic terrorism has plagued and undermined the American economy econ-omy and civil liberties, not by striking New York, the Pentagon or Washington, D.C., but by striking at her citizens everywhere, every-where, especially those in small rural areas. Areas as tiny as Jarbage, Nev., and Escalante, Utah, small areas with small economies, easily destroyed or upset by these domestic terrorists. terror-ists. These small economies may not seem critical at first glance, but taken as a whole across America, thousands upon thousands of them, the losses are staggering upon the American economy. Who are these terrorists who seek to undermine the Constitution, control the economy, econo-my, and subjugate American citizens cit-izens to their plans, desires and ideals? While they live in every sector in America, they seek out small places, rural communities, to initiate their .biological warfare. war-fare. They realize they could never turn all of New York or L.A. to their thinking but small areas with fragile economies which are inner dependent are easily manipulated and provide a place to incubate their evil. Many of their supporters are ignorant to the actions and intents of their leaders. They may feel they are doing the world a favor, but in reality their plans are not based on science or common sense but on padding their own pockets or creating their own fantasies. Thankfully, many of the small communities that are targeted tar-geted by these tyrants have citizens citi-zens with stalwart pioneer (See LETTER on page 3-A) Letters To The Editor From Page 2-A 1 ancestors and the cords of steel that built their character lingers and spans time and space, pulsing puls-ing today in the lives of their children and grandchildren, so many of the evil acts against them are thwarted and exposed before they destroy. The domestic terrorists I speak of, (if you have not figured fig-ured it out), are those of the so-called so-called Environmentalist Movement. So-called because they are not true environmentalists environmental-ists or conservationists, they are radical preservationists, who feel nothing in life or nature should be changed except to suit them or their plans and ideals. This movement is responsible for burned cabins, dead cattle, vandalism, sabotage, spiked trees, pointless lawsuits, illegally illegal-ly funded legislation, and gross misrepresentation or manipulation manipula-tion of facts and evidence. America's economy has been so grossly impacted by the unscientific unsci-entific and ungrounded demands of these environmentalists environmen-talists that millions and billions of dollars are lost eacl) year from our American economy. Lawsuits, lost government time and money, economic losses of renewable resource in timber, mining, livestock, hunting animal ani-mal research, fisheries, oil and numerous other industries. In Oregon, nearly the whole timber industry was destroyed because of the spotted owl hoax. The spotted owl is not and never was endangered according to scientists. They live in all types of habitats. In Garfield County, environmentalists have cost our economy millions with lawsuits over the Burr Trail, acts of vandalism, van-dalism, shot cattle, burned cabins, cab-ins, and the loss of millions in timber harvesting. Environmentalists were responsible for the devastation, now apparent, above Panguitch Lake and all across Cedar Breaks. With court injunctions and false accusations, they stopped all logging and with it, the control of spruce beetles and disease epidemics. Now the whole mountain is dead and dying. Cedar Breaks National Monument will be removing ' millions of board feet of dead trees to reduce fire hazard. If proper management and timber harvesting had been allowed, this tragedy could have been avoided. If these acts of economic and forest disaster, brought on by so-called environmental groups ' are not acts of domestic terrorism, terror-ism, I ask what is terrorism? Now millions of plant, animal and bird species will die or be displaced. Fish will die from the polluted streams and increased acidity in the water. The whole ecosystem has been destroyed and till take hundreds of years to heal. The individuals and groups responsible for this act and all other evil and stupid acts should pay the price for revitalization of the forest and economic restitution to the areas affected, then they should be thrown in prison as an example. ' If you or I accidentally start a forest fire, we will be sent the bill for cost and clean up. If an environmental group or individuals individ-uals destroys a forest by anti-logging anti-logging legislation, or injunctions, injunc-tions, they should be held responsible. If a group or individual indi-vidual destroys the cattle industry indus-try in an area and range scientists scien-tists and foresters reveal no valid or justified reason for their removal, or if the resulting overgrowth over-growth of vegetation causes a catastrophic burn, those responsible respon-sible for the economic losses to private cattlemen and public lands, should pay restitution for all losses. Are these acts of domestic impact any less destructive to America than destroying the World Trade Center or bombing the Pentagon? Are they any less a breech of the Constitution or Bill of Rights? Are they any less a threat to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of people peo-ple all across America? Do these people attempting to destroy America support our flag, believe in freedom, or pledge their allegiance to our Constitution? It has been my experience that these domestic terrorists usually do not raise families, work positively in a community, have religious affiliations or make good neighbors. Because they only harm or destroy the work and livelihood of others, they are very negative individu- - als with very little concern for others. I urge all such terrorists to move to an area where they will be welcomed and useful where they can terrorize each other with uncontrolled glee, where lack of accountability and shame are acceptable please hurry, though, Afghanistan won't be with us very long! Rick Crawford Escalante |