LETTER: ... remember that facts need to be correct and applied accurately to stories

Dear Editor:
Accuracy is not a factor my classmate, Becky Rom, retains when forming positions that have grave consequences for a town she calls home....ELY, MN.
It is extremely important to remember that facts need to be correct and applied accurately to stories, which are intended to be perused by the reader.
If you do not state facts that support your intended perspective, you are falsifying your outcomes to suit your needs.
As your classmate I feel the need to bring out some inconsistencies in her recent article from the Minneapolis newspaper. First at age 12/13 she stated that in seventh grade she was selected by our English teacher, Mr Doug Drechsler, who was a first year teacher in 1962, to take the lead in a debate over the BWCA. At that age it was not a big concern of us since, we were still able to travel in the Basswood Lake area by motorboat and snowmobile.
In fact we were traveling across four mile portage by vehicles stored on the Fall Lake side of the road leading to Basswood.
She states that there were 150 students in her class, that is not true, we never had that many classmates.
You have stated that you got two votes to agree with your position, that is not consistent with the truth, and I do not remember that there was even a debate over this BWCA issue. You’re giving the reader a false feeling that most of your classmates were against you. As your classmate, I never witnessed that you were singled out by any of our class, it wasn’t that big of a deal because we could travel in the region without permits or any restrictions. The article depicts that you were ostracized by most of your classmates. This is where I feel you lost me..you’re painting a picture that we were bullying you and I know that never happened. Invoking that emotion to the reader of your article is wrong.
Not stating the facts straightforward leads the person reading the article to ,conclude that your classmates had a negative impression of you. I only remember the good times during our seventh grade experiences.
In your article you give the impression to the reader that your Dad felt the ,town was against him. I remember coming up to your Dad during one deer hunting season, he just shot a buck and had it dressed out. A buddy and I dragged his deer out because I knew your Dad had a heart valve replaced. I was 18 years old and my buddy was 17.
This was the season when the last iron ore mine was closed down permanently.
This is why I have submitted this comment. There were a lot of hard feelings by the locals primarily because the wilderness advocates painted us as scourges of the earth who were not responsible enough to take care of the area we called home. They portrayed us in such a negative way that only environmentalists felt they were the only ones that could save this area.
It made me sick to hear from someone coming to this area with statements that they needed to take control of this area because they could not trust us.
Let me tell you it became hard for locals to justify that this area was taken from our use just because the environmentalists stated falsehoods, lies and slanted statements that lead to a total federal government takeover of an area that we loved, because of our families came to this area for the raising of their families who loved to hunt, fish and enjoyed nature, no matter what ,the season. Using natural resources does not destroy the area, it makes them productive and allows the area to revitalize itself, through care, not only during the summer months but the entire year.
The current contention is that mining will destroy the BWCA due to the closeness of copper nickel mining. The environmentalists have spun the stories that sulfide would destroy this area. They have thrown doom and gloom over the word sulfide and will lie, slant emotions and misrepresent the truth. No one can say that any person. has died from sulfide poisoning, even though we have many lake owners drinking water from drilled wells that have been dug in sulfide rock.
Here is a challenge, bring me one newspaper article that states that the deceased, died from sulfide poisoning. That is the difference between fact and fiction.
Bill Skradski
Ely