Note to the Homeland Security Folks: Environmentalists Are Not Terrorists

To the Charleston Gazette Editor:

I read with dismay the article by Ken Ward Jr. in the Gazette quoting Lt. Col. Herb Lattimore on the subject of potential terrorist groups in our state.

Although I would agree that racial hate groups and certain religious groups, because of past activities, should be in his lexicon of those to watch, lumping environmental activists in this group makes me very suspicious and angers me.

Lt. Col. Lattimore and Bill Raney seem to be kindred spirits. What an opportunity to quiet these nuisances by calling them terrorists! Assail their patriotism and make them pariahs!

Most environmental activists whom I know (and I count myself as one), are passionately concerned about the health and well-being of all citizens who are at the mercy of wanton industrial pollution and destruction being visited upon our planet (these are the "real" terrorists!).

Clean air, clean water and clean soil are birth rights that everyone should want to protect. To classify this as terrorism is a consummate distortion of truth.

Thank God for these "terrorists," without whom cancer and respiratory ailments, to name a few, would be rampant.