Well, you can say they stood up for their beliefs.

Top Business Leaders from the Outdoor Industry Endorse Kerry-Edwards

Tuesday September 14, 2:24 pm ET
The Health of the Great American Outdoors is at Stake

OREGON CITY, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2004--

"Senior executives from leading outdoor manufacturers, retailers and associations across the country gathered today to endorse Senator John Kerry for President and Senator John Edwards for Vice President. They announced their endorsement at a press conference with Senator John Edwards at Clackamus Community College in Oregon City, Oregon.

"We have come together to endorse Senators Kerry and Edwards because they share our values and goals," said Lee Fromson, president of Seattle-based Cascade Designs, Inc., a leading manufacturer of outdoor equipment. "And we are here today because the Great American Outdoors is in serious jeopardy and if we fail at protecting the outdoors then our businesses will fail, our health will fail and we will leave future generations with air they can't breathe and water they can't drink."

Remarks by Senator John Edwards and Cascade Design's Lee Fromson carried common themes:

• We must clean up the air we breathe and the water we drink or the health of all Americans will suffer
• We must provide more venues and opportunities for outdoor recreation for the 150 million Americans who actively enjoy outdoor recreation
• We must treasure our national parks for recreation and not the industries that mine them for treasure
• We must lower health care costs to stay in business. This is true for all businesses not just our own.

"Our national parks are severely under-funded resulting in rampant understaffing, site closures, eliminated visitor education programs, neglected cultural and natural resource preservation and unsafe trails," said Peter Bragdon, vice president and general counsel of Columbia Sportswear. "Protecting our parks and open space is essential to the health of my business, the outdoor industry at large and to the many States whose economies depend upon tourism and recreation, not to mention the millions upon millions of Americans who enjoy the Great American Outdoors each year."

However, I think they may have shot themselves in the foot; freedom of speech, is it not grand...

--WP