Editor:
An item in the January Journal caught my eye (Upfront: "Hartsook Giant my tumble").
To stave off bankruptcy, we are told, Woodland Valley Ranch Co. plans to log 37 acres of forest next to Richardson Grove State Park including the magnificent "Hartsook Giant."
I hope the Save the Redwoods negotiations on behalf of this tree succeed.
If not, I wonder: When the business' debt is cleared and it is operating financially once again, will the owners consider changing its name to No Woodland Valley Ranch Co.?
Barbara Mor, Eureka
Editor:
John Arnold (January guest opinion) is making a valiant effort to talk some sense into the heads of District Attorney Terry Farmer, Sheriff Dennis Lewis, Eureka Police Chief Arnie Milsap and U.S. Rep. Frank Riggs, but he may be up against a fateful lack of intelligence. This bunch seems to be hellbent to cost Humboldt County a lot of money.
Also, can a policy reached by top law enforcement and prosecution officials through mutual consultation be dismissed as "just a mistake?" It resulted in the premeditated torture of passive teenage women with a chemical weapon designed to incapacitate violent attackers. That's illegal and morally wrong. Equally illegal and morally wrong is ordering peace officers to act inhumanely and violate their oaths to uphold the law.
The lesson for us voters is not to vote again for these officials or any others who take money from Maxxam or other outlaw corporations.
Kristin Vogel, Garberville
Editor:
I'm a local Earth First activist and I'd like to respond to John Fullerton's letter in which he claims, "No one would dare answer the question 'What would you have done?' "
I'll be happy to answer it. Given the same situation I'd have done the some thing the Humboldt police have been doing for the past seven years to remove Earth Firsters from steel pipe sleeves. I'd have grabbed the diamond blade grinder and the goggles and the flame retardant tarps from the trunk of the car and grinded them out!
Earth First isn't the cause of all the uproar. MAXXAM liquidating Humboldt County's resource base and exporting the profits to Texas is.
We don't always expect people to like what we say cause it's a harsh reality we point out. But don't blame the messengers if you don't like the message.
Duff, Eureka
Editor:
Regarding your publisher's column (December) in which you say, "Are we tired of -- and just a little bit miffed by -- those Headwaters demonstrators?"
What a smarmy, trivializing dismissal of people who put their physical well being and their freedom on the line to fight for the old trees. In 1980, I was part of Peace and Justice group walking for peace in a Memorial Day Parade in Rochester, N.Y. The night before the march a man called and said he was a sniper and was going to hide in one of the office buildings lining the parade route and "take out one of those peace bi--hes." I remember what it took to walk what seemed hundred of miles that bleak morning.
The Headwaters protesters are no less courageous. Where is your respect?
Mary Sojourner, Flagstaff, Ariz.