Section: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR



Unheard voices from threatened redwood forests

Last week, they resumed logging of ancient trees in Northern California with little notice. Very few heard the sound of giant trees falling in a majestic forest except for the activists who are up in those trees doing work for all of us who care and even those who don't.

It was a glorious thing to see 10,000 people come together on Sept. 14 to ask Charles Hurwitz and Pacific Lumber to stop the massacre. I was surprised that this event did not rate even a picture in the San Francisco newspapers or make any of the news broadcasts in Los Angeles. I would think that the presence of so many militantly clad "peace" officers, aside from all those concerned for the trees, might have been worthy news to some.

This event certainly made no impression on legislators such as Quentin Kopp (who gives a bad name to two professions). I don't know what marionette controls this press hungry beast, but rest assured his interests don't lie with the trees or the people.

His response to those of us who climbed a bridge last year with a simple message: "Charles Hurwitz, aren't ancient redwoods worth more than gold?" was to focus his energy on increasing criminal punishment for anyone who climbed the bridge again while sidestepping the real issue. On that day, the Highway Patrol blocked lanes of traffic as an effective means of making motorists mad and pressuring us to come down.

The CHP did its job. Kopp did his job, feigning concern for the affected motorists while garnering media attention that we hoped might go to the trees. Radio DJs did their job, expressing outrage, stirring debate and asking why we could not get our message out in a more peaceful, civilized manner.

Now Hurwitz resumes his job of turning the oldest, most beautiful creatures on the planet into bloody stumps. I ask you: When 10,000 people from all over the Northwest get together to plea for the lives of these irreplaceable beings, some of which have been here since before Jesus walked the Earth, and it is barely considered newsworthy by national or even state media, then how do we get the message out?

Every day, the ancient ones are being slaughtered, and if the press does not carry the message, what are we to do?

 Woody Harrelson Los Angeles