Stop Whining, Start Mining

This is apparently the new "slogan" for mining advocates. I'm shocked that you pro-pollution people hear the message we anti-pollution people (like that spin?) are trying to put out there as whining.

If you told me that you, your mom, dad, child, sibling, or a dear friend was taking a medication and I'd recently read an article about some serious side effects linked to this same medication, so I told you about this article, would you say I was whining? If I researched this medication further because the side effects were so scary, and I uncovered even more side effects and possibly some deaths associated with this medication and told you about those, would you say I was whining?

If I told you pro-GTac mine people there was an alternative to this mine in terms of job creation, that I had discovered a company eager to set up shop here, that this company would provide hundreds of permanent jobs, jobs that wouldn't pollute like this mine will, jobs that didn't rely on a finite resource to exist, jobs that would leave our wild places wild, would you still want this mine? If I begged that we please come together as a community concerned about bringing longer-term jobs than a mine can possibly provide and that maybe we could hold open forums to brainstorm for alternatives to this mine, that maybe if we all pooled our resources/contacts/ideas, we could find a solution other than a mine to address the high jobless rate we have up here, that maybe our reps haven't been doing their jobs so well and perhaps we need to do some things for ourselves, would you pro-GTac mine people be interested? Would you still demand this mine if Bill Williams or Chris Cline called a special meeting to inform the public that:

1. With the current technology available, this proposed mine will, indeed, destroy all area wild rice.

2. Pollute area creeks and streams over time, making the fish inedible.

3. Wreak havoc on the watershed in a way they couldn't possibly predict, but most likely we'd lose some trout streams and small lakes completely, and very possibly area wells would dry up or become contaminated.

4. The Minnesota mesothelioma study, which was done due to alarmingly high numbers of taconite miners and their family members contracting mesothelioma along the Mesabi Range, wasn't finished, so they were going to assume that it was a nonissue and not address it at all.

I guess the question I'm really asking is, is having your way what motivates you above all else regarding this mine?

Signed,

Sarah Martines
Mason