Please let Mr. Dan Schmiechen know that he can label me stupid and I won’t mind. You see, I read his letter to the editor of Feb. 21 and I just don’t get it.

Putting aside all his comments and questions about “sulfide” mining, Columbus, 500 years of clean up and Faustian bargains, the underlying premise of his letter is this: Will people come to live and vacation in the beautiful Northwoods if there is mining?

Mr. Schmiechen poses the question “will people want to invest in a seasonal cabin and a year-round home in a mining region”? Label me stupid, but  the obvious answer is absolutely! From Winton to Coleraine, Cook to Cotton, 100,000 people live right here in a mining region. We live here year round and we pay our taxes, too. For 132 years we have lived and mined here, and for the next 132 years we’ll be living and mining here.

Label me stupid, Mr. Schmiechen, but didn’t you and your family buy a cabin in a mining region? When you and your family came here 66 years ago, the Soudan mine and the mines in Ely were fueling the economy of those cities and schools,pumping out iron ore everyday. Ore trains were hauling that ore right next to that highway you were traveling on while dreaming of the Northwoods.

Label me stupid, but I figure 66 years from now, when Twin Metals is trying to get permits to open up it’s third underground mine, some guy from Minneapolis, fighting against that mine, will pose this profound question as he drives by Minntac on his way to “Nirvana”. “Will people come to play and live in the Northwoods if we have mining?”

Really, label me stupid, but are we Rangers so faceless to you “dual citizens” from the Twin Cities that you can’t see us?

Tom Rukavina

Pike Twp., Minn.