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.

Recommended Reading

ETS!,

These web sites are a great example of how our tax dollars are helping to educate the children of America. You might find them amusing. If not, please don't hit me (I don't write these pages, I just spread the word).

Is spying fun? You bet! The CIA Kids' Page: http://www.odci.gov/cia/ciakids/.

Learn the answer to the immortal question "Do kids get sentenced to death row?" (and maybe gain a deeper understanding of schoolyard shooters). The "Tennessee Department of Correction Kid's Fun Zone": http://www.state.tn.us/correction/kidsfaq.html.

Phil Kos, via e-mail

Inside Indonesia

Wiranto is the man to watch. He is already most powerful man in country. After some period of turbulence over next year, he will find his way to the presidency. Many Indonesians are less concerned with democracy than having the best leader--someone who delivers stability and economic progress again. This is a grim scenario because it means that reform will not go far. Of course they need a revolution, but everyone (almost) is afraid of that word. All focus is on political process, greater rights, and economic growth. No one talks much about greater equality.

Even if ABRI (the Indonesian military)--either Probowo or perhaps even more likely Wiranto (he did end up the victor!)--started the riots, resentment against Chinese is widespread, not because they are rich but because of the way they treat Malay. A Malay shopkeeper will give goods at a discount to the poor, the Chinese not. I've heard more stories from the islands east of Bali. Riots there seemed to be genuine, often followed by marches of students together with the poorest sort of taxi drivers and others. In any case, it didn't take much to get people riled up. People should know that these stories of ABRI involvement are held by almost everyone.

W. Nessen, Indonesia, via e-mail

Unpublished Letter to the Editor!

To the Editor (Seattle Weekly):

Why did the Eric Clapton article fail to mention the controversy about the song in which he threatens to shotgun a woman? Such an omission was noteworthy, for a publication that tries to maintain an iconoclastic posture.

Is Clapton too big an icon to tamper with (for the aging boomers of a certain race and gender, of course)? Or does the problem lie in choosing a reviewer whose career is too closely intertwined with his subject's?

Whether one agrees with Clapton's critics (as I'd be inclined to), or his apologists, such a controversy is current news, and warrants at least a passing mention in a profile of a visiting performer.

--David Yao, Seattle. Sent to the Seattle Weekly June 7, 1998.

Another Unpublished Letter to the Editor!

To The Editor (Seattle Times),

So the American Baptist Churches of the Northwest think that homosexuality is inconsistent with Christianity (Seattle Times, May 17).

I'm told there are about four places in the Bible here homosexuality is mentioned.

Meanwhile, there are dozens, if not hundreds, where wealth is condemned. I can think of several off the top of my head, far less ambiguous and marginal than the condemnations of homosexuality. For instance: Christ's disciples were communists (Acts 2:44-45). When one man asked how he might be saved, Jesus replied, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor" (Matthew 19:21). He explained to his disciples that "a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven ... It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:23-24). The Sermon on the Mount admonishes, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth" (Matthew 6:19). And in James 5:1 we read, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you"--the start of a long and detailed denunciation of wealth as contrary to God's word. These are central and unmistakable statements about wealth's incompatibility with a Christian life. And there's plenty more where these came from.

When are the Baptists going to declare that wealth is "inconsistent with Christianity"? Whether we look at their own scripture, or the overwhelming evidence of the daily news, it's clear that this is a much more serious problem than how a few people like to do the nasty. But apparently these anti-gay Christians prefer beating up on a small and unpopular scapegoat minority to criticizing the glaring faults of their own and their co-religionists. I seem to recall Jesus had a few choice words about that sort of behavior, too.

--Davis Oldham, Seattle

Don't Cry For Us

ETS!,

RE: Reclaim our History June 14th. I don't mean to split hairs but I think you made a small error in listing Che Guevara's birth place as Cuba. According to the biography that precedes The Motorcycles Diaries, he was born in Rosario, Argentina. Just thought you would like to know for next year.

Josh Keller

Ed. comment: Thanks to the several folks who pointed out this late-night typing error ... We usually average about one stupid mistake a week, and appreciate it when people catch 'em for us.

But what was up with the anonymous (of course) woman who virtually screamed her voice mail message? According to her, we owe an apology to the revolution and all oppressed people blah blah blah. It apparently never occurred to her that when volunteers are typing on weekly deadline at 2 AM, 99% accuracy is pretty good, and the errors are not intended as a personal vendetta or dis-endorsement of The One True Path. Geez, lighten up!

We're Number One!

ETS!,

Among the 19 largest industrialized democratic nations, on a per capita basis, the US is "Number One" in:

Billionaires, wealth; income inequality, and children living in poverty (remind you of Mexico?)
Total health spending and percentage of population without health care coverage
Abortion, infant mortality, death of children under 5, infants born at low birth weight, preschoolers not fully immunized, and not providing paid maternity leave
Highest paid athletes and lowest paid teachers
Defense spending and not spending on the poor
Big homes and homelessness
Providing military aid and not providing humanitarian aid to developing countries
Bank failures, bank bailouts, and differential between average executive salaries and average worker salaries
Deaths by guns and deaths by capital punishment

Public Input

ETS!,

What's up with this naming thing, anyway? First Safeco Stadium, and now Hec Ed Seafirst Shithole. And the money changing hands! No wonder my overdraft charges are so goddamn high.

I heard they're opening up the ripoff parking garage at 6th and Pine this month. Somebody oughta give that one the name it deserves: the Finke Fuck Y'all Garage (after the asshole who brokered the deal in the first place).

I'd pay five bucks for the naming rights. Okay, maybe ten.

Cranky Prole Bitch, Seattle

Disgusting!

Dear ETS!,

On Kip Kinkel, Timothy McVeigh, and education:

I find the culture and society of the United States to be disgusting. The United States uses an invented and imaginary power of an intellectual and social-cultural status to consume more. This "power" is something people have invented between themselves and has little correlation to actual consciousness. Being conscious is not an intellectual, cultural, or social status. I feel it is being aware of what you are consuming, and what is being created out of that consumption. People in the United States use their "status" and "intellect" to be a more privileged consumer, one whose consumption is more important than another person's. Look at Timothy McVeigh, and Kip Kinkel: they took the United States consumption ideal to its fullest education. Do not worry what it creates or what it destroys, "just do it." (Or as Nordstrom's has plastered all over its store windows, "go with the flow.")

The United States is a nation with an intellectual and social- cultural hierarchy that is based on consumption. It makes the rich consumer and the barbaric murderer media stars (i.e.: Bill Gates, Timothy McVeigh).

Needless over-consumption and the created death (or extinction) of any life (for status, consumption, or education) is barbaric; until this correlation is realized, expect more of it. You can blame the government, the military, corporations, the media, or this culture and society, but really, it is the peoples' fault. We create the environment that fosters the need for all this barbarism. Go ahead, people, consume until we all die (and blame whatever).

Sincerely,

from a formerly homeless man who is now on welfare and living in low income housing, (as) sign me: no status or intellect, I am conscious, and working hard at it.

--Kenn Dzaman, Space 2001, Seattle WA

ACTIVIST CALENDAR

For an excellent compilation of upcoming and ongoing progressive events in Seattle, check out Jean Buskin's Peace Calendar: http://www.scn.org/activism/PJ-cal.txt or e-mail her at bb369@scn.org.

EAT THE AIRWAVES!

Hear Eat the State! political commentary on Mind Over Matters every Saturday morning from 8:30 to 9:00 on KCMU 90.3 FM. If we can get up that early, the least you can do is turn on your radio and listen!