ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?

Dear Sir:

I find it ironic that a publication which regularly denounces tobacco corporations would publish a cartoon like that found on the first page the August 19 issue. Two panels show two conventions: a near-empty room for a "Victims of Marijuana" convention, a overflowing room at the "Victims of Marijuana Laws" convention. Even if few stoners think they're being victimized by their drug of choice, it's not hard to find a number of ways in which pot hurts people.

You don't have to be a rabid anti-drug campaigner to see that pot smoking isn't great for your health--do you think the resin that collects in a pipe isn't also in your lungs? Do you think smoking only causes cancer when the substance being smoked is tobacco? Beyond any basic health risks, the stupidity, passivity, and dullness one notes in many habitual pot-smokers isn't much different from that observable in a glazed-eyed TV addict. If you've ever watched a pot smoker who's out of pot and can't find more, you'll realize that pot's at least psychologically, if not physically, addictive. It's not exactly a mellow scene.

Finally, if you think the business of pot growing, distribution, and sales is conducted in a highly ethical manner, or that the only reason the business is nasty is because it's illegal, you are stoned. Chronically.

--Eric Fredericksen, Seattle

But What's Puzzling You Is The Nature Of My Game

Dear ETS!:

I appreciated your comments a while back about Seafair and its glorification of the military industrial complex. I then saw the page one piece in a recent Sunday Times attacking people who "whine" about the noise, traffic, garbage, etc. that Seafair produces. So if the anti-noise people are "whiners," what does that make you all? The Anti-Christ? And does this mean that someone at the Times actually reads your work?

Keep fighting the good fight...

--Robert Cook, Anacortes

Sorry, We Can't Print This

Greetings,

Please print the following item in your "Activist Calendar" section as an ongoing event:

Food Not Bombs is a hunger relief volunteer collective that serves vegetarian meals to those in need every Sunday evening in downtown Seattle. We believe that no one should be hungry in a land of plenty and so we prepare meals from "unsellable" food that would otherwise be wasted. To join us or to donate food or cooking equipment, call Jenny @ 402-1857; Chris @ 860-3922; or Marsha @ 789-9800.

--Chris Flanagan, Seattle

Ed note: There've been several FNB incarnations over the years in Seattle. With more people involved, hopefully this one will stay more stable and can expand feedings. Beginning next Sunday (Sept. 7), FNB will move its feeds back to Occidental Park, where the city has harassed them in the past. Get involved!

For the reference of folks who don't read closely each week: like every other feature, our calendar space is pretty limited. Activists should make sure their listing gets in Jean Buskin's e-mail calendar, too. We prioritize: direct actions; public political events; fundraisers; and cultural celebrations (i.e., fun). We rarely print: ongoing events or organizational meetings (too many, no room); things we didn't know about (we're not psychic). We avoid: events that get lots of publicity through corporate media; events that cost a buttload to get into (the $50 dinner and $300 workshop culture).

Cranky And The Gang

ETS!,

How touching that one of your readers is willing to defend Paul Schell's questionable residency status. Here's the facts:

Schell is currently living in a rented condo near the Pike Place Market. He used to own this condo, but sold it recently in preparation for his expected retirement as Port Commissioner. Fortunately, the guy who owns it rented it back to Schell so he could maintain his status as a Seattle resident and run for mayor.

Schell owns two other abodes: a "Whidbey Island getaway" (with a lawn big enough to need a tractor to mow it) and a "garden apartment" in the south of France.

Oooo la la! How many of us can claim that we live in three places at once?

While I'm bitching, I'd like to point out the disgusting antics of Schell's handlers who are doing their utmost to make him look like an ordinary, middle class kind of guy. They threw away all his silk suits, his Armani ties, his leather dress shoes and patterned socks, then bought "white trash" clothes for him at Eddie Bauer or some other sweatshop outlet. If I see one more picture of him with his hands in his pockets and his chins tucked against his chest trying to look like somebody's harmless grandpa, I'm going to barf bigtime!

He should take his wingtips and fly off to France, where he can retire and rub elbows with aging starlets who've had too many face and boob lifts and chicken-shit former Third World dictators sunning their fat bellies on the Riviera.

--Cranky Prole Bitch, Seattle