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Get With the Program!

ETS!,

The entire debate on the free software movement misses the whole point, in my opinion. Not one word in the original article by bi8bra or any of the letters in response to it mention where advanced technology comes from in the first place: massive public subsidy. Does any individual or institution have the right to claim property rights over something created by public funds? How about a free hardware movement anyone? The hardware we use to run all of the fancy software we can buy or get off the Internet for free wouldn't be around if the taxpayer's wallets hadn't been lifted like they have since the end of World War II. Bill Gates is the biggest leach of public wealth in human history.

Tom Redfern is living in La-La Land. Almost all of IBM's contracts in the 1950's were government contracts. That's what gave us the modern PC. If you want to believe in the myth that the modern PC was created by the profit motive and the market, then you have to go out of your way to ignore the actual history and not read the business section of your local newspaper. For example, Qwest Communications of Denver was awarded a government contract recently. That has nothing to do with the market or the profit motive as it is described in Redfern's letter. There is no doubt that the profit motive is driving the computer companies, but their profits are made by ripping off the public. Advanced technology in its early stages is incredibly inefficient and wouldn't survive without public subsidy. I am well aware of the "they founded their company in their garage" parable, so don't even try it in response to my letter. Yes, anybody can build a mother board in their own garage, but they can't mass market PC's to the public without finding their way to the public trough.

Jeremiah Weiner is living in La-La Land too. The federal government can and does interfere in the U.S. economy on a daily basis. In answer to the query by the Chinese officials to the American trade official in 1980 published in Weiner's letter: who controls the distribution of materials in America? --Mostly a few to several large concentrations of wealth we call corporations in a particular industry, all of which benefit from public subsidy from a powerful, centralized national government in Washington D.C. The only thing one has to do to debunk the notion that we are living in an anarchist society, as it is espoused by Weiner, is to look at the price fixing of lysine by ADM. Or look at how Kraft is running small dairy farms out of business and is doing so in collusion with the USDA.

Does anybody study history or keep up with current events anymore?

--Rick Giombetti, Fort Collins, Colorado

Environmental Racism

ETS!,

Regarding the "Stump Talk" article on Makah whaling and the Sea Shepherds: At the Sea Racist "Town Panel" meeting the top Sea Racist boss stated, "We believe in Native sovereignty, but there's a bigger issue...the gray whale."

That statement points to two major problems that the Sea Racists don't seem to understand. First, for over 500 years eurocentric colonialists have been telling the indigenous people that same song and dance. In simple words, the eurocentric elitists have told indigenous people how much their hearts bleed for them (that same thing they say to all people of color, poor people and working people), but there are more important things to deal with. Are indigenous people (and other people of color, poor and working people) to sit by and wait until all the more important issues of the eurocentric elitists are finally taken care of, and then hope their turn will come up? I think not.

Next, the eurocentric view of the world divides the problems of the world into singular issues and they deal with them in that manner. Thus, from that viewpoint it makes sense for them to ally themselves with a racist right-winger like Jack Metcalf. But there is another world view and that is that all things are connected. From that viewpoint the Sea Racists joining together with Metcalf places them in the same camp with all the other right-wing racists.

If Sea Shepherd truly respected Native sovereignty, they would have come into this state and gone to the respected First Nations Elders and activists throughout this region and talked to them about their concerns. Instead, they came in like Custer did at the Little Bighorn, and they may find themselves joining Custer in the same outcome. Rather than talk to the First Nations, they are telling them that their very existence is secondary to their issue.

It seems that it does not matter to the Sea Racists that Metcalf has one of the worst records in Congress on environmental and human rights issues (Metcalf has no problem with whales dying from industrial pollution). Or that Metcalf was ranked #3 by NewtWatch in their "Top 20 Toadies" list. Or that Metcalf was a co-chair of an organization (Redeem Our Country) that included anti-Semites, segregationists, Christian Identity advocates, members of the Liberty Lobby, and members of the Posse Comitatus. Or that Metcalf has been one of the point men in this state and in Congress for the "Wise Use" Movement and racist anti-tribalism. All that matters to the Sea Racists is that he stands with them on a single issue. And it does not matter that Metcalf stands with them because he is against anything that the tribes do.

Members of our network held an informational picketing of the Sea Racist's event. With signs that read "Dump Metcalf," we passed out flyers that explained Metcalf's background. Many were interested to find out who Metcalf really was. A few even stated outrage at the alliance between Metcalf and the Sea Racist bosses. But some acted like blind, brainless drones who would support the Sea Racist bosses no matter who they climbed in bed with. In a discussion I had with one of the drones, I asked if there were any lines to be drawn that the Sea Racists should not cross. I asked about David Duke, Adolf Hitler? I was hoping to find someone that they would not ally themselves with. All I got back was, "there is a little good in every person." In other words "yes, if they agreed with me on my single issue."

Shall all of our struggles, those of the people of the First Nations, those of all other people of color, those of real environmentalists, those of poor and working people and those of all other oppressed people wait until the singular issues of the upper middle class Sea Racists bosses are won? Then maybe our time will come? Among the issues that they presented at their event was the harm that the Makahs would do to the whale-watching industry. (Thus saying that the profit making of some greedy profiteers who try to turn what is left of nature into tourist sightseeing is more important than all the struggles of oppressed people and the battle against corporate greed that is destroying Mother Earth.) If you disagree, please send messages to the Sea Racist bosses at; projectseawolf@seanet.com and SeaShepherd@seashepherd.org.

In Solidarity,

--Arthur J. Miller, Anti-Racist Emergency Action Network, Tacoma

Okay, A Flea Circus

ETS!,

Congrats on your new format! It's slick. Regarding your Media Watch Sam & Cokie Dog & Pony Show piece, I wish to highlight a point that I am certain you are well aware. While the PBS shows do not have "commercial interruptions," and do allow the pundits complete thoughts at a time, the producers are equally beholden to the "underwriters" in the same way that the commercial programs kowtow to advertisers. PBS is hardly a step up. The content will ALWAYS be the same bland, inane, blather. Sam, Cokie, Buckley, Mclaughlin, et al. are all simply apologists for those same "investors, businessmen, & CEO's," regardless of network. A real dog & pony show would be far more enlightening. La lucha continua...

--Eddie Salazar, Seattle

Safeco Slough

To the editor,

Enough of this "populist crap!" I want all the clearcuts, ruined streams, and eroded mountain sides in our public forests that were subsidized by us taxpaying citizens to have the corporate logos of northwest corporations posted on them.

There is more than enough environmental devastation (paid for by our tax dollars) available for naming rights. So much that when we run out of corporate logos, we can then nominate northwest politicians who would like to be remembered for posterity.

Dick's Sticks and Mudslide Slade National Forest have a nice ring, don't they?

--Leon P. Robert, Seattle

Chest Thumpin'

ETS!,

I was watching the World Cup the other day. One of the sponsors of the game was the US Army (a good use of our tax money, don't you think?). Between halves the sponsorship ad said something to the effect of "this match sponsored in part by the U.S. Army, the biggest, toughest army in the world." I'm so proud.