From: Will Kernen [mailto:kernenlaw@hocking.net]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 6:15 PM
To: marketreg@sec.gov
Subject: Opposition to relaxing rules regulating short selling


Dear Sirs:

              I understand the SEC is considering relaxing some regulations
on short selling.
I write to express my extreme opposition to any relaxation of regulations
concerning short selling.
              The very concept of short selling is abominable. The current
regulations already permit brokers to loan my shares held long without my
permission to short sellers who drive the value of those very same shares I
own down to my detriment. They create an artificial supply of shares
perverting the natural forces of supply and demand.
              My experience has been that short sellers thereafter bash the
company with misleading and outright false comments in news releases, radio,
television shows, on message boards and private conversations to encourage
more selling by other shorts or longs for the sole purpose of realizing
their intended profit. It is intolerable market manipulation and anything
the SEC does to encourage such activity or make it easier to accomplish is
not in the best interest of honest investors, the free market and the
economy in general.

              Sincerely, Will Kernen
                         P.O. Box 388
                         Logan, OH 43138
                         740-385-2121