To the people of Idaho who have quietly felt concern about the wolf lunacy being forced down our throats as we've slept but are afraid to speak out about it: There is going to be a petition circulating around to get rid of this insanity. Sign the petition no matter what the elite, so-called educated deadbeats in our society call you. We are not "a bunch of Nazi Nancys with monster trucks." We are not all "hunters," and we don't have to be "educated" about how nice the wolves really are, that "they only kill the weak."

Actually, most of us are hard-working folks who can't afford to buy large wooded tracts of land being developed with half-million-dollar summer homes and condos. We're just the people who worked the woods, mills, farms and ranches that are being swept away as American industry slowly grinds to a halt.

We know that the wolf population has exploded because the once-plentiful elk population has had more than a decade of hardship first brought on by the harsh winters of '95-'96, then the decline of habitat, and then by the onset of truly uneducated people turning a vicious predator loose on them. Don't let these people intimidate you; you are right and they are wrong. Let us stand up and quickly try to bring some common sense back to our state.

Rick Westerholm

Lewiston