Disturbing deja vu

Are you old enough to remember the Maine returnable bottle referendum of the early 1980s? Does any of the following sound familiar?

“Referendum passage will result in: 1. Massive job loss in the state; 2. industry-wide chaos; 3. mom and pop businesses closing everywhere; 4. soaring product prices; 5. a terrible victory for crazy environmentalists, 6. etc., etc.”

The commercial-industrial interests mobilized the lobbyists, spent the big bucks and got the Maine Legislature to vote the bottle bill down and send it out to referendum. The voters had other ideas, however, and the rest is history.

Now we have the anti-clear-cutting referendum. Once again the industrial-commercial interests will close ranks and pony up the funds needed for a big anti-referendum blitz.

Part of those funds will go to the campaign war chests of local state legislators and senators. These lawmakers can be identified by the articles they write for local weekly newspapers extolling the wisdom of the commercial-industrial woods interests position on this matter. (See above, nos. 1-6.)

Another part of this money will go to a campaign of organized arm-twisting in Augusta to come up with an alternative woods bill and avoid a referendum.

Television, radio and print media will, of course, share in the largesse of out-of-state PAC money.

The clear-cutting referendum will assert the people’s right to influence forestry practices on land under jurisdiction of the state (the unorganized townships) to the benefit of said people and its long-term interests. The big commercial-industrial interests consider the long-term future to be the day after their company’s next quarterly report comes out.

Come on, folks in northern Maine, open your eyes and look what’s happening to our forests and woodlots. Check out the spruce, fir and poplar logs going by on the road or sitting in wood yards — they’re tiny toothpicks!! Let’s pass this referendum question and help keep Maine’s forest industry from ending up like Maine’s ocean fisheries. Joseph York Small woodlot operator Easton