Open letter: Regarding ANWR and the Senate vote

March 21, 2003

To Senators Lamar Alexander, Michael DeWine and George Voinovich

So, now that the large padlock and chain remain -- for the time being -- on
ANWR (the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge), what's next?

Those that own the oil companies may now reap higher profits by parceling out
the various fuels at ever-higher rates (there's a war going on now, you know)
-- while our ability to kiss the Middle East and its oilfields good-bye goes
down the tubes -- with our shot at having reasonably priced fuel and home
heating oil, natural gas, etc.

Not everyone lives in the Midwest, or has our heating bills in the winter and
cooling charges in the 'three H' summers (heat, haze and humidity) -- but
living in the nation's food-producing breadbasket means that we are giving
something back in exchange for living in a place that costs more for humans
to live/survive.

When the temperatures plummet to the double digits below zero, we have
millions of tons of potatoes stored for your baking/frying/broasting
enjoyment.

While you are keeping cool, poolside, we are milking great herds of shiny,
healthy, beautiful Holsteins, their glossy coats covering the most amazing
milk-producing factories!

While you vacation in distant lands on sunny sands, we toil because we love
it in long furrows of green -- soybeans, corn, wheat -- that will golden and
provide what becomes the bread for your sandwiches, the coatings for your
medical needs, the ink that fills your printer cartridges.

Out of site should not be out of mind.

In exchange for this dedication and devotion to resource providing, there are
those in the Senate -- and House -- that consistently vote to lock up
America's ability to feed, clothe, shelter and protect herself from all
enemies, both foreign and domestic. Put simply, if our own generational
land/water stewards do not have the freedom to responsibly plant and tend and
harvest what our people need to live well -- and at reasonable cost to the
consumer, which we all are -- then there is some treason going on.

It's not a matter of 'liberal' versus 'conservative' or 'Democrat' versus
'Republican.' Those smoke screens serve only to mask the real deceit that
runs rampant throughout the hallowed halls within the (Washington, D.C.)
Beltway.

I suggest to you, today, that you shake the Etch-A-Sketch and begin anew with
a clean slate. This is still a great country, in spite of your wrongdoings,
oh elected ones. Today, tomorrow and henceforth, honor more than you ever
have before.

Instill legislation that opens doors to real careers that matter for
Americans. Close all our borders to those that seek only to destroy our heart
and soul; and tell those seeking to come here to do it right, by applying for
citizenship, as many honorable immigrants have done, before them. Hold up
America's farmers, miners, ranchers, loggers, fishermen -- hold them up as
your standards -- and honor them with everything you do while you're in
office.

Never again bite into a Washington State apple or an Idaho potato or
Wisconsin cheese -- without seeing the face of the man or woman whose honest
work was responsible for your healthful dietary needs.

Never again consult your watch or don your jewelry without thanking the miner
whose hard work -- out of your sight but never again out of your mind --
provided the materials that you wear.

Never again use any paper or wood product -- from toilet paper to fine
writing pens clad in beautifully grained former trees -- without thanking God
that you have America's loggers to provide these things to you. Wood, you
know, is a renewable resource.

Never again enjoy a grilled fillet or snap a crab leg without seeing the salt
spray-encrusted face of a real American, a fisherman, before your eyes. Let
that gratitude fill your heart and drive your soul to new heights that you
may never have attempted before.

Free the resource providers of America to do what they do best -- and let
more than a dwindling few reap the benefits of this honest labor. Blood,
sweat and tears equity is much more than just 'menial labor' -- it is the
very spine that holds America to attention, her hand over her heart, courage
in her soul and more than two hundred years of this equity driving her to
care for her own and keep herself the standard-bearer of the world.

Don't stand between America and greatness ever again.

Julie Kay Smithson
213 Thorn Locust Lane
London, OH 43140-8844
1-740-857-1239
http://www.PropertyRightsResearch.org