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them say they will pack up and leave if we fail to subsidize, 

 pamper and protect their particular choice of employment. 



If you were to travel Southeast Alaska, from village to 

 village and home to home, as I have over the last five years, you 

 would find that some of the people of the Tongass are here simply 

 because they love this land, the ancient trees, the cry of a 

 raven at dawn, the shimmer of the sea, and the dark shape of the 

 brown bear traversing a distant tideflat. They love this land so 

 much they will do any work or live without work, without 

 televisions and new pickup trucks, without winter trips to 

 Hawaii, without the comforts of modern life and guaranteed 

 paychecks . 



These people of the Tongass will stand up to the last of the 

 robber barons, who run the pulp mills here and in Sitka; they 

 will speak out against the deciaation of the old-growth forest, 

 of abuse of resources and of people, even if it costs them their 

 jobs. They will stand up for the Tongass even if it means they 

 must endure mean-spirited personal attacks and bullying from Lew 

 Williams, posing as considered editorial opinion in the Ketchikan 

 Daily News. 



These people of the Tongass care enough to write you in 

 favor of Tongass reform, supporting the efforts of Senator Wirth 

 in careful, heartfelt personal pleas. You have hundreds, perhaps 

 thousands, of their letters in your offices in Washington. But 



