READER OPINIONS Home Edition

• Published in: The Atlanta journal-constitution (2001)
• Main Author: RONNETTE TAYLOR, TRACI MULLER, CHRIS WALDORF, MIKE WALTERS, H.D. FARMER, SABRINA HALL, CHARLES HUFF, MILES STONE, DAVID FRANCIS III
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta, Ga Atlanta Journal Constitution, LLC 03.12.2001
• ISSN: 2473-1609; 2690-8093

As little girls, we are programmed to look pretty. We play dress- up and seek approval in our lace and frills. Then as we start school, we are teased for being a bit more chunky than the next kid. As we grow, we hide those maturing curves in fear of more ridicule. Peer pressure can be vicious. Acceptance is desperately sought --- no matter the price. At the junior high dance, the bone-thin girls are asked to dance. In high school, only the "light," agile girls are allowed to be cheerleaders. It's necessary to be thin to be accepted. Linda Chavez obviously believes that harvesting stem cells from embryos is immoral, but she never tells us why ("Science advances toward unthinkable," @issue, Nov. 28). Instead, she tries to draw our minds to a world that doesn't exist, a place somewhere in the future where scientists are harvesting organs from humans by shaving off a few hours or days from a terminally ill patient or by using cloned fetuses for their organs. As the report indicates, the greatest threat to the forests of Georgia is urbanization. But, as more land is developed, the conversion of agriculture land to forestland has stabilized the forestland base. As a manager of forestland for private landowners since 1974, I have seen the pressure of development, subsequent higher ad valorem taxes and disincentives of adverse regulations and restrictions force landowners to consider alternative uses for their land. Without relief from these pressures, private landownership will continue to pass to developers. But even with these obstacles, private landowners continue to manage their land as a renewable investment while providing a source of water and air quality improvement through best management practices, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities for many.