Burger King Boycott -- Paul Newman, Do You Hear US? Will You Meet With US?

On June 18, Mr. Paul Newman called me about the boycott we started in the Pacific Northwest on June 1 against Burger King, because it uses Newman's own salad dressing. We also are not buying any of Mr. Newman's other food products. Mr. Newman would like to have us pull our boycott.

In the mid 1980s, Hollywood reached out to the embattled farmers in America's Midwest to provide encouragement, concerts and lobbying at a time when nature and bankers had joined to foreclose the family farm.

We are now in the 1990s. The players have changed, but the concept is the same. The working families in the timber industry are fighting for their jobs, their homes and their children's futures. They find themselves threatened by the government and the radical environmental community. Meanwhile, Hollywood is silent.

It has always helped, when forming an opinion, to have a look at all the facts.

We who live and work in the woods or in timber-related jobs strongly support the set-aside of more than 5 million acres of prime old-growth timber, an area larger than Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, for no use other than primeval forest.

The issue of the spotted owl and the lock-up of federal lands not only means the destruction of families who live and work in this nation's forests and who help to regenerate them.

It also will steal the opportunity for educating children of the Northwest. More money from federal forest sales goes into payment for education in urban Seattle than in any other school district in this state.

The destruction of our timber industry is not a ``green'' issue. It will sever the roots of opportunity for children across the Northwest.

Perhaps Mr. Paul Newman would consent to pay us a visit in person. This is a personal invitation to him.

We in the Pacific Northwest - Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California and Washington - are ready to show you the truth about our lumber industry. All of us who face destruction of our jobs, our communities and our way of life would like to believe that people like you might come to our aid if you knew the facts.

Mr. Newman, are you open-minded enough to come here and see this land and these people firsthand? We would be willing to pull the boycott if you could see fit to meet with us.

- Sandi Pedersen, Morton.