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.

Start Eating, Mira!

Dear ETS!,

Noticed an interesting coincidence in today's issue (v2/#40). Your front page quote is the chestnut "Everything that can be invented has been invented," which you attribute to U.S. Patent Commissioner Charles H. Duell in 1899. This quote is apocryphal. As technology writer John Horgan pointed out in a sidebar to a Scientific American article about the Internet (SA, Feb 1996, page 32B), this quote has been attributed to several different patent commissioners between the years 1843 and 1899. It was said by none of them. The probable source seems to be commissioner Henry L. Ellsworth in 1843, who testified before Congress that the state of technological advancement "seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end," but wound up asking for more funding for the patent office.

The interesting coincidence is that none other than Bill Gates, in the preface to his book The Road Ahead, made the same mistake. This is a coincidence, right? Or do I need to call Oliver Stone right away to sell the movie rights? (Oliver Stone presents a Touchstone Picture: "Eat The Gates!" starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the young Bill Gates, hungry and ruthless; Harvey Keitel as Geov Parrish, who taught him how to manipulate the media to his own ends; and Mira Sorvino as the beautiful but deadly Maria Tomchick!

"Two big fat thumbs, WAY up!" - Siskel and Ebert)

Speaking of Mr. Gates, your quote from him in v2/#36 ("64K ought to be enough for anybody") should probably read "640K" instead of 64K. Although even the then-wild-and-crazy-boy Bill should have known better, 640K was a big improvement over the current state of the art in PCs. Of course it wasn't really enough, and anyone who uses a PC today (even Macs!) still has to deal with the effects of all the corner-cutting that's been done to try to fit "real" software into such arbitrarily small and inhospitable boxes.

Phil Kos, Seattle

Letter from Tent City

Dear ETS!,

Freddie and I visited Tent Camp 2 on the west side of Jefferson Park, south of the Seattle Public Utilities building tonight. We met the people who are camping there, talked with them, heard their story, and watched a glorious sunset together. There were about 40 people there.

They are very dedicated to reaching out in the community and letting people know who they are. I was quite impressed with this aspect--when I returned home there was one of the guys from the camp handing out flyers on my street. Sometimes their energy and commitment to their cause overwhelms me.

Anyway, they've asked me to pass on this message to you:

New Neighbors

We are creating a temporary site at the Beacon Hill Reservoir for the safety of some of the many homeless citizens who sleep outside each night. The recent deaths of homeless women have shown again that people who are outside scattered and isolated are at risk.

We are SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort) and WHEEL (Women's Housing Equality and Enhancement League), organizations of homeless and recently homeless men and women with an eight year track record of success managing our own programs. Between us we presently have ten shelters, a Storage Locker Operation for the homeless community, two SHARE2 Houses (the internal transitional job program), a meal program for women and families, and we have helped establish transitional and permanent housing.

SHARE and WHEEL will provide daily oversight of Tent City 2. Admittance is only to those who have been screened, are sober, and are in conformance with shelter rules. Drugs and alcohol are not permitted.

We intend to work with the City of Seattle and the Beacon Hill neighborhood to create a safe, clean encampment for emergency shelter while we continue to work on long-term solutions for homelessness. There are many homeless people on Beacon Hill already. Tent City 2 will not increase that number. What it will do is provide a structure so that we may keep our living space and your neighborhood cleaner and safer than we can when forced to live without sanitary facilities, police protection, garbage disposal, etc.

SHARE and WHEEL are committed to making Tent City 2 a positive addition to the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Participants are ready to participate in community cleanups, block watches, and other activities of a good neighborhood. We would be glad to report regularly to community groups on the encampment operations if that is desired.

Any problems may be reported to 448-7889 (SHARE/WHEEL) and will be acted on promptly. We pledge that if a pattern of problems develop that we are unable to correct and that diminish the Beacon Hill community, we will cease operation of Tent City 2.

Please call SHARE/WHEEL at 448-7889 if you have any questions or suggestions as to how we may work with your community.

The Tent City 2 encampment is at the southeast end of the Beacon Hill Reservoir, on 15th Ave. South.

sent by Albert Kaufman, Board Member of the North Beacon Hill Council

That Other Guy

Dear ETS!,

Ran into the may 26 article regarding the IAM (Maria Tomchick).

An interesting twist is that the machinists, in addition to endorsing Metcalf, sponsored the state democratic convention in Yakima. Just want to cover their bases I suppose. I'm sure Berendt wouldn't just sell them the second district for a convention in Yakima. Would he?

The district has produced a challenge to Metcalf in the form of successful Coupeville area businessman, Fran Einterz. With nearly six hundred jobs in a company he built from scratch, Einterz offers his employees benefits unions would love to be able to. One half of company profits are shared as bonuses on an hours-worked basis. Domestic partners qualify for health benefits. Part-time employees are eligible for all benefits. Managers make no more than three times what line staff makes. Everyone has access to the retirement plan, liberal vacations, and training opportunities.

Einterz also sports a remarkable work history and an unusual record of community involvement. He is soliciting funds from within the district, running a shoe-leather campaign, getting an enthusiastic response from the constituency--and no media coverage. A total 'under the radar' campaign with very high appeal to the district. Watch the majors try to explain this one when it smacks 'em upside the head.

Tip Johnson, via e-mail

More Summer Reading

Hello there,

In response to your article about the community museum being "busted", I have a book recommendation: The Careless Society, Community and its Counterfeits by John McKnight of Northwestern University.

The author of the article referred to the "grotesque premise" of the welfare industry and the 'new volunteerism' being the idea that people must never become self-sufficient. I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. McKnight would also agree, but he goes beyond the welfare industry and volunteerism, exposing this attitude in all areas that provide service, which is most of this nations current economy. He targets in particular the nature of professionalism, medicine, human service systems, and the criminal justice system.

It also contains a conceptual framework on community by John Kretzmann which is, in my opinion, the leader in transforming the way 'caring professionals' can understand the communities and people they are employed to help.

If you haven't read this book already, take the time to do so.

Thanks, and keep up the good work,

Tomi Bates, via e-mail

Read Your Summer Away

ETS!,

The following essay is now available for the first time in the U.S. at http://www.pir.org/scott.html: Peter Dale Scott, "The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno, 1965-1967," Pacific Affairs, 58, Summer 1985, pp. 239-264. Peter Dale Scott is a professor of English at the University of California in Berkeley, and an advisory board member at PIR.

The book version circulating in Indonesia was officially banned by the Attorney General about eight years ago. This led to remarkably accurate and candid summaries being published on page one of nearly all the Jakarta daily newspapers. These summaries focused on Scott's case that Suharto, rather than the PKI, was implicated in the murder of the generals [which sparked the coup in 1965--eds.].

--Daniel L. Brandt, San Antonio, Texas