LETTERS: LAKE QUESTIONS JUSTIFIED

To the editor:

This letter is in response to Gary Rust's commentary March 2 on the lake project.

I was one who wrote and questioned the feasibility of the lake project. I believe that my questions, along with the other writers of letters to the editor, were justifiable.

I directed my questions to the author of Senate Bill 363, Sen. Peter Kinder, for he was one who proposed the bill. Who better qualified to answer our questions?

I am not unacquainted with writing legislation. In 1985, I was appointed to Pennsylvania's then-Attorney General Zimmerman's Task Force on Family Violence. Our task was to introduce a bill that would update the laws governing sexual abuse of children and child pornography.

We succeeded in these changes, but we also engaged in much controversy. I also lectured on this subject and testified in 1986 for U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography and was never intimidated to change my views or values on this important subject. I stood my ground.

The statement was made at the March 13 meeting that when asked to attend one of the meetings of the opponents of the lake, our state senator refused. His statement was that he was not against or in favor of SB 363, he just wrote it. Furthermore, his salary was not adequate enough to take any abuse on this subject.

I believe we all have legitimate questions on this lake project, for it will affect everyone living in both counties. Therefore, I am extending my personal invitation to Senator Kinder to attend the next meeting April 3 at the Woodland School in Marble Hill. If this date is not feasible, maybe we can accommodate the senator and have the meeting on a weekend.

To the other proponents of this project who feel that they are being chastised, remember if you feel you don't have the wherewithal to go the full distance, you should not have started in the first place. Or, as one of our most popular presidents, Harry Truman, said: "If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen."

ANDREW WIESNER

Marble Hill