Many other people have said many other things about this incident. The letter received by Ms. Lopez is reported to have referenced CARD; "I know one group of 1,500 people that will never buy a crumb from you, the members of CARD."

For the record, CARD did not sponsor the letter nor any phone calls to the Lopez business. CARD is concerned with efforts on the part of some public officials to construct highways which are not needed at great public and environmental expense to benefit special interests; we are not concerned with a minor donation to Wilbourn´s fund-raiser.

- We do not "push around" little people. We are, after all, little people ourselves.

- We understand that in controversial areas such as the Western Corridor, generally any side that a small business takes is likely to cause it to loose "friends" on one side of the fence or another.

- We believe in the American system of free enterprise within the context of federal and state law. We feel that CARD members and all other citizens are free to choose which businesses they wish to and which businesses they choose not to patronize; based on factors of cost, quality, location, or any other factors they wish to consider.

CARD does feel compelled to point out that there is a non-trivial amount of concern in the western part of the county relative to the Western Corridor study; this was evident to CARD and all others that attended Supervisor Wilbourn´s "meeting" at Mountain View Elementary School this past fall. This concern may be compounded when citizens do not feel that their elected officials are listening to their concerns with the project.

Given that CARD is one group that is visible in the western part of the county, it is easy to imagine a scenario where someone makes reference to the group (or to "1500 members of the group") when stating a particular political position. We would like to point out that we have no control over such a scenario, and being referenced by an angry homeowner to bring focus to a consensus certainly in no way can be construed to be an endorsement by CARD.

Further, we should point out that other scenarios are equally plausible. Those that have no backing for their position in terms of analytical studies, economics, or desires of the people are often seen to use emotional tactics, half-truths, and "spin-control" techniques to make their side of an argument appear better than it does under a rational perspective. It is easy to imagine a scenario where someone on the other side of the issue brought CARD´s name into play to attempt to make us look like bullies or thugs. It would be nice if this was "far-fetched;" but when you go to the public hearings and you see the homemaker from Alexandria that drives out in the dark of night to Prince William County to testify at a VDOT hearing that the Western Corridor will greatly improve her life; a road that runs tangential to her community at a distance of 30 to 50 miles and does not perform a bypass function...its hard to imagine this facility having any impact whatsoever on the daily lives of the residents near the river. Why do they come so far in the dark?

Finally, we noticed that in these same news stories some had referred to CARD members with such descriptors as "militant" and "radicals." We are not militant; we seek "...peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances..." which is our right under the Constitution. We are not radicals; we do not seek to change our form of government--much to the contrary, we wish to see our politicians return to the basic Constitutional principals in the matter of the Western Corridor. What principals are these? There are many. We can cite specifics, such as the 5th Amendment right "...nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation," or we could cite the general principals of a "fair and open government." With respect to the name calling in general, we would refer readers to the paragraph above "...those that have no backing..."

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