We agree wholeheartedly with Patricia Horn’s letter (May 6, Auburn Reporter). Here’s why:

A real estate agent offering ridiculously low prices for our land approached us and our neighbors. We then heard the City of Kent wanted our forest for a watershed above a planned reservoir. When the City finally forced us to sell upon the threat of seizure by eminent domain – which would have resulted in us receiving far less market value – we asked our attorney to write in the contract that if the land were to be used for anything else, we would have the right to get it back. He said that wasn’t necessary because, “They can’t use it for something else. It’s never happened.” Ha ha.

Our thick-forested land was stripped clean of the big timber, of cedar, fir and maple that was home for deer and owls, but most importantly, it was ours to enjoy. Their promised “green belt” never happened.

It is nice to have somebody like Virginia Haugen to speak out for the environment. Let’s not have a City Council that’s afraid to speak out for what they think is right because they do not have the right to do what is wrong.

Being censured, isn’t that the same as losing your freedom of speech?

– Fred Pederson