To the editor:

Yes, for a tree. Why is that so difficult to accept? By mocking and dismissing the beliefs of others, your editorial (March 20) demonstrated one of the main problems we have with other people around the world. Not everyone believes as we do. People believe many things. People are passionate about their beliefs. Many people in the world are willing to take risks and suffer for their beliefs. Perhaps we should accept that fact because we cannot change it. And by doing so we may be able to understand the basis of many of the armed conflicts in the world today.

There are many people who believe that the natural world, the world that is not human-made or controlled, is important enough to fight for. That is the basis of many cultural belief systems, and there are entire nations that adhere to this belief. If we mock and dismiss the idea that someone cares enough about a tree to suffer for its preservation, how can we understand these other nations?

This is a town that has created a long-standing conflict with the relentless drive to develop wetlands important to many of our Native American neighbors. You would think the Journal-World would have learned over the years to be more sensitive to issues such as this and understand that the nonhuman world can be as important to some as the human world is to the editor.

Cynthia Annett,

Oskaloosa