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are not allowed to do their jobs, and they are not allowed to defend 

 when they are attacked. That is not right. 



I am not sure if an)d:hing like that would change under State 

 ownership, but we know for proof the Federal system does not 

 work. You cannot log without trees. You cannot build roads without 

 rock. I cannot run a store without customers. We need a long-term 

 plan we can stick with for stability in the area. Maybe if we all 

 knew what the bottom line was for once and stuck with it, we could 

 pick up the pieces that are left in our lives and go forward. Not 

 knowing is the hardest part for everyone. It has taken too much 

 of a toll. 



At this point, I am not sure how much longer some of us can 

 keep going. My business is doing less than 50 percent of normal, 

 and I have lost 90 percent of my mail-out business. Most of it went 

 to the Sitka or Wrangell mills. Most of the loggers have known me 

 at one time or the other. My operating expenses are still at a hun- 

 dred percent of normal. There is nothing left to fall back on. 



The tourists that were going to save us are some really nice peo- 

 ple, but I do not think they are going to save my business. People 

 with jobs will save my business. We would rather work and pay 

 taxes and buy the things we need. 



What happens to people like me? Do we disappear? What hap- 

 pened to the little store-keeps in the camps around Sitka or 

 Wrangell? Did they fall through a crack somewhere? I am not a 

 logger. I do not get unemployment. I will not be retrained, and I 

 will not be rehabilitated. The only thing I know how to do is be a 

 store keeper and a mom, and I am too old to have more kids. I 

 have worked 361 days a year for the past 16 years. Not many of 

 them were eight-hour days. I have no other means of support. 

 There are not any jobs in Coffman. Do I lose my business? Do I 

 lose my home? I paid the Federal Government taxes for 16 years 

 because I worked. Now the same government is about to put me 

 out of business. Can I get a refund for default? 



Maybe it is more politically correct today to be homeless than to 

 be a logger in the Tongass. I hear there is some help for the home- 

 less. 



Again, I would like to thank you for coming to the island to try 

 to help us, Don. It is a holiday weekend, so we are all impressed. 

 I would like you to — I know I am on a red light, but for working 

 so hard for us for so many years, we know you have tried your 

 best. We know that you understood. Maybe we should have thought 

 of this years ago. Maybe it would be better now, but at least you 

 have given us hope once again. 



The Chairman. Thank you, Judy, and thanks for that. I know 

 you wrote that yourself and it is from the heart. All of you, I deeply 

 appreciate. 



By the way, I do believe there is still a future. That is one thing 

 I am good at. I am very much of an optimist. I am one that has 

 great perseverance, and as I said to George Miller and Moe Udahl 

 and all those people that wanted to lock up the Tongass, I will out- 

 live you or I will outlast you, and I have done both, and I am going 

 to continue to do that because I am resource oriented and I really 

 strongly suggest that anybody that says that there is not resources 



