To the Editor:

With all the commentary about the devastation on Chocolate Drop and the poor stewardship of the land across from Harmon Field, I am impelled to share the following passage from the book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, by Janisse Ray:

If you clear a forest, youd better pray continuously. While youre pushing a road through and rigging the cables and moving between trees on the dozer, youd better be talking to God. While youre cruising timber and marking trees with a blue slash, be praying: and pray while youre peddling the chips and logs and writing Fridays checks and paying the diesel bill even if its under your breath, a rustling at the lips. If youre manning the saw head or the scissors, snipping the trees off at the ground, going from one to another, approaching them brusquely and laying them down, Id say, pray extra hard: and pray hard when youre hauling them away.

God doesnt like a clear cut. It makes his heart turn cold, makes him wince and wonder what went wrong with his creation, and sets him to thinking about what spoils the child.

Youd better be pretty sure that the cut is absolutely necessary and be at peace with it, so you can explain it to God, for its fairly certain hes going to question your motives, want to know if your children are hungry and your oldest boy needs asthma medicine whether you deserve forgiveness or if youre being greedy and heartless. Youd better pay good attention to the saw blade and the runners and the falling trees; when a forest is falling, its easy for God to determine to spank. Quid pro quo.

Dont ever look away or daydream and dont, no matter what, plan how you will spend your tree money while you are in among toppling trees.

From the chapter, Clear Cut.&bsp; &bsp;

&bsp; submitted by Janet Peterson