A recent item in the “News Messenger’s SPEAK OUT!” caught my eye.

“IN REFERENCE TO the Longhorn property, I cannot understand why the property cannot be equally divided between the Caddo Lake association and the industrial group. There is plenty of land to serve each. Shellman, Canson and Bradbury should not be so darned unreasonable. We need many jobs for Harrison County people. Maybe we would be lucky to secure something.”

It is clear that the person who submitted this article is well informed and has made a suggestion that should be given serious consideration.

Currently the total acreage at Longhorn is 8415 acres. Now the USFWS has control of 5915 acres.

This is clearly unfair. We need to throw out the last 10 years work and start over. If the land was split equally, the association should only have 4207.5 acres. I suggest the Industrial Group be given 4207.5 acres, Mr. Shellman be given 1402.5 acres, Mr. Canson 1407.5 acres, and Mr. Bradbury get 1407.5 acres.

There has been too much talk about USFWS needing the entire 8415 acres in order to promote birding.

That is the last thing we need in East Texas because good birding attracts “bird watchers” and we should do nothing to attract those people to this area. To para-phrase the “Governator” -- bird watching attracts “girly” men and other under-desirables.

Everyone knows these people look funny but might not recognize that they are not smart.

A “bird-watcher” will spend lots of money to buy binoculars and other fancy gear, spend lots of money at an expensive B&B, eat at expensive restaurants, and generally drop a lot of cash – and for what?