Subject: Regarding: File No. s7-25-97: Just say NO! Author: Date: 12/12/97 10:30 AM TO: Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 450 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20549 Regarding: File No. s7-25-97 Dear Mr. Katz: As an American conservationist & patriot, I write to strongly oppose proposed changes in the rules governing shareholder resolutions. These changes would make it much harder to sponsor shareholder proposals addressing environmental & social justice concerns. First, by increasing the percentage of votes a resolution must win to be resubmitted, the new rules would make it hard to build support over time. Second, the new rules would allow companies to refuse to include a resolution on the proxy statement if, in management's sole judgment, a resolution's sponsors are motivated by a special interest, including, apparently, a special interest in the future environment. From a purely financial standpoint, companies that improve environmental performance tend to improve their stock performance as well. If shareholders are not able to encourage companies to act as better environmental & social stewards, it is not clear who will. This is a completely anti-American approach to doing business. I urge you to withdraw the proposed rule changes. Sincerely, "Ecology is now teaching us to search in animal populations for analogies to our own problems. By learning how some small part of the biota ticks, we can guess how the whole mechanism ticks. The ability to perceive these deeper meanings, and to appraise them critically, is the woodcraft of the future." - Aldo Leopold (1949)