February 20, 2009 05:45 am To the editor: There is a message being sent out to all fishermen. The message is being sent out by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The message is to inform all fishermen that they are a lower class of human being than others — that you are not worth sending out a speedy rescue by the USCG. The message from the NMFS is that the agency will do everything that we can to put you out of business. It would seem to me that, if any other "minority" was treated this way, there would be an outcry from all to stop the injustice to these poor hardworking people. Give them a chance to be part of this great country. These hard-working people, by the way, helped make this country what it is today. It was Gloucester fishing schooners that were the first vessels outfitted with gun carriages to defend our country. This is how we repay them — by not offering the speedy response that any pleasure boat would get? Or by not giving them the right to make a decent living and support their families like everyone else? I feel that the way the Coast Guard handled the sinking of the Patriot is just short of setting up guns on the breakwater and taking pot shots at all fishing boats going by. The way that the NMFS has been handling Judge Harrington's ruling is blatant ecoterrorism by playing hardball with the fishermen's lives and our fishing community. Can you hear what the USCG and the NMFS is saying now? I can hear it loud and clear. This is not the way we should treat any class of people, especially the fisherman who, if it weren't for them, the Coast Guard and MFS would be out of a job. Fran Beaulieu Woodbury Lane, Rockport
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