Hi Steve, I've seen exactly what you're talking about for many years now. I used to be very involved with this fight, but I became discouraged as it seemed only a few ended up doing all the work, and the enviros seemed un-stopable. However, I really do believe that we can buy ourselves some time here. Maybe a lot of time if we're persisitent and lucky. We can't underestimate the power we now have through networking on the internet. This is something we didn't have before. I've been checking out a lot of radical-enviro web sites, and guess what? There AREN'T that many radicals actually involved. It's just that the ones who are involved are very committed. They make a lot of noise. They rattle the politicians cages....thus they have power, and they know it, and they use it.

One eco-site on the Oregon coast is beautifully done. They are pressing for more local wilderness and lead the reader step by step on how to contact their representative. They give sample letters, addresses, e-mails, etc. They do it all except lick your stamp. Guess how many people have visited the site in the past two years? About 4,5000! That's not too many at all. What if WE were to do the same thing? Have a site with "Action Alerts" complete with info, addresses to write, #'s to call, sample letters, etc. It wouldn't be that hard to do. If a politician or bureaucrat considers 1 letter to equal the opinion of a few thousand regular citizens. And we were to nail them with at least 100 letters, I honestly do think this will make a difference. Remember, Steve, we've lost so much ground because we've been so silent. We are all part of these fragmented groups (most aren't part of ANY group) who are too stuborn and independent to throw in with each other. And really, how many miners have actually written and got involved in the process? The ones I've known usually go back to their claims and let "someone else" do the work. However, pendulums swing both ways, so we need to buy time until it comes back our direction. People will see what liars and extremists environmentalists are, and it will eventually tilt the scales our way again, especially when Joe Citizen sees that the craziness is directly affecting his life-style. We just need to buy more time. So don't be discouraged until we see what happens over the next year or two. Let's just all keep doing our part, let's make some noise. We're getting some great feedback from Stan with PFUSA, I think we should be encouraged. "Either we will hang together, or we will hang seperately". Ben Franklin