And Don't Think

Dear ETS!

In order not to antagonize any white folks, and to let the healing begin, I'd like to propose an alternative to the anti- affirmative action Initiative 200 currently before the Legislature. I call it "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue." Women and people of color would be allowed to keep their jobs, or apply for new ones, just like normal folks. Nobody would be allowed to ask if they had a peculiar gender or skin tone. On the other hand, if they flaunt their alternative biology, they could be fired. Finally, employers would be prohibited from going after anyone just because they suspected them of having deviant DNA.

I think it's time we liberals accepted that the American public is fed up with women and colored people asking for special rights. We need to quit pushing failed social programs and find a solution that works for all of us. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"--it's a color-blind policy we can live with.

--Davis Oldham, Seattle

Italian Sovereignty

Friends,

Had an unusual discussion yesterday with my two banker-students here in Rome about the tragic ski area accident where 20 people were killed by a low-flying American military plane. I was saying that Italy should get rid of the dozen or so and other secret American military bases scattered all over the peninsula. They were surprised, to say the least, that an American (expatriate) should make such suggestions. I heard TV interviews last night from people living in the area near the American air base saying that it was an accident bound to happen in spite of the protests about the low-flying flights and the terrible effect it has had on the human and animal population and the environment. Can you imagine the U.S. allowing Canada (or Italy) or any other friendly nation to conduct military exercise over its territory?

In my opinion, Italy is still not quite a sovereign nation. Besides, there is still the Vatican State right in the HEART of the capital, a cancer that was never eradicated (sorry to offend some Catholic friends). The politicians still put up with American arrogance (also Church) and have been conditioned to believe that it can't defend itself without the American military, that they can't do without the considerable economic gain from these installations. At times I wish Italians would be at least half as nationalistic as some other nations.

In the past, the American military has gotten away with murder, literally. There have been other accidents where many innocent Italian lives were lost but the real culprits were never brought to trial. An Italian civilian plane with about 80 people was downed near Ustica, an island north of Sicily, about 15 years ago. The causes of that accident still remain a mystery, though many people know who was responsible.

Yesterday, I was reminded of the suffering of the inhabitants of Culebra near the Virgin Islands who were subjected to constant target practice bombing by the American military who used the island for their war games. (I think that they have finally stopped after many years of protest and the traumas inflicted on the island population.)

I hope this time those TOP GUN pilots who were not flying by the rules and maybe playing games will be brought to trial in Italian not American courts, as the Americans are asking. The Italian president and other top politicians, including communists who have talked about this problem for many years, were quite outspoken and undiplomatic in their first comments; it's about time they spoke up.

Frank Zappala, Rome

More Guts

Dear ETS!,

I'll tell you why I'm most pissed off. It's because generation after generation of people have been unable to tell the truth, make just decisions, make this world a better, more equal and fairer world. The current generations of over-40 people continue to tell the same lies and hold onto and gain power as their ancestors did. Keeping the majority of the people living paycheck to paycheck, damaging our environment so they can scrape out one more dollar and buy one more share of stock. Stock in what? Corporations that have no accountability, that take no responsibility for their actions? Shares in a poorly designed game that eats up people, squanders what little we have left in the way of natural resources, and squeezes the life out of people? So that we can all have more things?

I flew over Mexico City and realized where this leads us. The city has 27 million people all living close together under the Mexican sun, breathing smog which is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Is this right? For our elders to keep calling the shots? For the lie that we need more and more children on this earth to persist? Who is going to call a halt to the madness? When are we going to get some forward-thinking leadership in this world that commands business interests to add waste into their equations? That adds in destruction of non- renewable resources into their equations? When are we going to see policies celebrating small families with fewer or no children rather than tax credits for bigger and bigger families? In Quebec the first 2 children bring $500 credits. For the 3rd and beyond a family receives $7,500 per child!

Here's what I want. I want you to go to work or to school tomorrow and think about the 5.7 billion people we've got on this planet and the fact that we're growing by 85 million each year. And the fact that we've got a use-and-abuse economic system that we seem stuck with. I want you to think of ways for us to get off of this course as soon as possible.

Who needs to make these decisions besides all of us? How can we take the steps locally, nationally, and globally to get us on track to a more healthy planet? To a place with less traffic (less people), less pollution (less people), more rainforests and animals (less people), less crowding (less people), more richness in our lives and less stuff?

I believe the responsibility for these types of decision and this kind of thinking must come from our elders. Those who we elect as well as those who run large corporations--and all of the rest of us. And I believe the time is now.

Let's get to work.

Albert Kaufman, Seattle

MT replies: Albert, I'd agree with most of what you said ... except for that last part about abdicating responsibility to our "elders." The responsibility for our future lies with us, and expecting politicians, businessmen, experts, and professionals to make these decisions for us (on our behalf) is what got us into this mess in the first place. We need to seize responsibility from those who've abused it, and re-democratize our society from the bottom up. Nothing less will make a measurable difference.

And Libyans, Sudanese, Irani, Laotians ...

Friends,

The U.S. is playing tag with WWIII in its current obsession with getting one-upmanship over the (small) nation of Iraq. The Pentagon's trigger-finger apparently is getting VERY itchy, and it's looking for an excuse! It's bad enough the U.S. is accomplishing world domination through economic warfare (Mexico, now Asia), but the Pentagon is getting BORED, and it wants a good old-fashioned shoot-em-up. There's more than one way to accomplish your "manifest destiny" to rule the world, right?

Regardless of what anyone may think of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi people have the fundamental right to their self-determination, and Saddam is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, no one else's. If the people of Iraq need help (deposing him and/or starting elections, etc.), from the U.N. or anyone else, let them ask for it!

Shouldn't we ask the U.N. to investigate the U.S. stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction? And when we do, let's ask them to include Iraqis, Cubans, Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans in the U.N. inspection teams. Now you tell me; do you REALLY think the U.S. Pentagon will allow its stockpiles of nukes, and chemical and biological weapons to be inspected by these teams? We know the answer to THAT ONE, don't we!

Which means only one thing: the U.S. Evil Empire must be stopped before it stops us! If we really don't want to glow in the dark tomorrow, we'd better start organizing and protesting TODAY!

SJA, via e-mail