Editor, The Commercial:
As I sat scribbling my signature on small slips of paper in the monthly ritual of paying bills, I noted that one insert yet again urged me to “save a tree” by going paperless. It irks me that supposedly enlightened people continue to chant this mantra.
The bills that were sent to me via the U.S. Postal Service were printed on paper that just as well could have originated in the woods around Warren, or Fordyce or Rison. Like cotton and corn, trees are a farmed crop, a renewable resource.
Those used most often for pulp to make paper are grown on tree farms — usually pine or one of the other soft woods — whose owners cannot bring in a crop from the same acreage every year but have to tend it for two decades before it is ready to harvest. Unlike agencies tending land along the West Coast, these farmers take great pains to assure that their crops do not go up in smoke before harvest time.
So, yes, I still use paper — because I support the American farmer, as well as the logger and trucker, who struggle to raise a family and pay taxes … and sign those little slips of paper every month.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
I also support America’s servicemen and women, not just those still in uniform but those whose active-duty service has come to an end. At one time, the Post Office assured the veteran that there would be a job awaiting his or her return. That may have changed in recent years, but there are still many now wearing the blue eagle who once wore another uniform for their country. Don’t believe me? Just ask your letter-carrier.
It’s easy to support the American farmer and the veteran. All it takes is a piece of paper and a stamp.
D.H. Ridgway
Pine Bluff