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Waste Not

ETS!,

Thanks to Dove for the excellent series of articles on the closing the VA's medical waste incinerator now! A correction and a suggestion. I was disinvited from the June 8, 1998 meeting at the VA because "there wasn't enough room for more than 15 people." I took the day off from work that day only to be shut out. Since that time I've become the North Beacon Hill Council's liason to the VA and have been trying to communicate with them (try forming a relationship with any military installation and you'll get an idea of what this has been like--brick wall).

We could really use fellow activists help here in our short but intense campaign to close this incinerator. To that end, feel free to contact the VA's Public Information Officer, Ms. Jeri Rowe at jeri.rowe@med.va.gov or 206-754-2435 with your questions, concerns and rants on this issue as well as joining us at our upcoming community forum on 9/26 held in glorious Jefferson Park.

For a better world,

Albert Kaufman, Beacon Hill

The Last WWII Letters

ETS!,

I commend you for carrying the "Second-Guessing Hiroshima" article by Maley and Mohan. It effectively challenges the myth of universal support for the bombings.

-John K. Stoner, Coordinator, New Call to Peacemaking, Akron PA

ETS!,

Equally as appalling as the mainstream's supposed support for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs are the lies which so easily brought this logic about in the thinking of our society. Generally these days you hear that these bombings brought about a quick end to the war, with a minimum of American lives lost. Unless, of course, you ask the residents of Eastern Washington living near Hanford, where the Nagasaki bomb was made, who have since become sickened with unusual symptoms and many cancers. What especially appalls me is how government officials so easily refer to humanness and peace when explaining military actions, and definitely the two droppings of American nuclear weapons on civilian targets.

What I believe is that Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented much more than an end to World War Two for the higher-ups in office at the time. Rather, it was to show off this technology that we stole from Hitler and demonstrate our uncomprimising superiority over Russia, China, Germany, Japan, and indeed the planet. What was important were the expected returns U.S. investors would receive from their investments in nuclear technology, much of which was in the billion dollar business of bomb-making itself.

To secure political and economic domination over the world, the U.S. has to do things like bomb, invade, and usurp control of the third world countries which do not comply with our laws and biddings. Thus the cycle is continuing to this day, at enormous cost of innocent life and U.S. citizens' tax dollars.

You see, World War Two is seen as a "good war" because we won. What people don't generally see it as is the early stages of American business gaining control over foreign markets. Historians are beginning to re-discover that the whole war was funded by big business to drive the U.S. economy ahead. The U.S. welcomed the ability to generate revenue in the war effort-- President Roosevelt actually was quoted admiring Germany for its number of bomb factories and lack of unemployment. When the government saw Japan as an attainable gateway to the Asian market, they "opened a hole in the fort," i.e. Pearl Harbor, and lured the Japanese military in for an attack. Roosevelt had been ordering the random sinking of Japanese ships in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack hoping to provoke a response in the Japanese military, and then left Pearl Harbor, and probably several other military sites in the Pacific, as sitting ducks. Once Japan attacked they were the aggressors which justified an even further profit for our military-industrial investors.

Our history is as convoluted as it seems--and it's always about money.

Which leads back to the atom bombs. Russia was set to invade Japan at the same time that we dropped the bombs. Had Russia been successful in taking the Japanese islands they would have won the rights to Asia, increased their geographical power, and complicated the issue of using the nuclear weapons at all. They saw their chance and they took it - TWICE!! Where does the evil really lie in history--well, I think we know - don't we?

--Dave McGraw, Seattle

Dear Editors:

The next time you see the authors Leo Maley III and Uday Mohan, tell them I said to kiss my ass.

My father was a Jewish U.S. combat soldier who served in Europe and then went home in the Fall of 1945 instead of participating in the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Apparently these authors would have sacrificed my father's life rather than have used nuclear weapons to end the war. These authors also apparently would have been willing to sacrifice the lives of the sailors and Marines already serving in peril within striking distance of Japanese kamikazes from the mainland when we dropped the bomb and ended the war.

Apparently these authors approve of the killing of 145,000 Japanese civilians in the conventional fire-storm bombing of Tokyo in April 1945, which did not end the war, because no weapons containing the now-not-so-trendy "N" word were used. Apparently phosphorous raids that were not ending the war, just so long as the war remained conventional and thus stayed within the authors' narrow-minded political dogmatisms.

Apparently these authors would like to make evils like the Rape of Nanking, the Holocaust, etc., go away just by sitting on their faggot asses in the U District in Seattle and getting really self-righteous and fantasizing evil going away.

According to your masthead, you want an end to exploitation, imperialism, etc. Apparently you are willing to go anywhere it takes, just so long as you do not have to leave the warmth and security of the deep recesses of your warped imaginations. After all, history teaches us over and over the results that can be achieved the power of left-liberal pseudo-intellectual self-righteousness. You people are really fucked up!

Sincerely,

--E. Kenneth Snyder, Seattle

Uday Mohan replies: Kenneth Snyder seems so concerned with asses--his and my coauthor's and mine--that he gives up on logic entirely. I'd like to suggest to him--if indeed rear ends are his thing--that asses and logic need not be incompatible concerns. If he takes another look at our essay it may just dawn on him that he really should be asking General Douglas MacArthur, President Eisenhower, President Hoover, and other prominent World War II-era critics of Hiroshima to kiss his ass, and not us.

Okay?

Looking for Faith

Dear ETS!,

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your outstanding NEWSpaper and thank you for constant efforts to inform and educate us all.

I've been writing this letter for about two hours now, deleting and starting over and over and over. I've learned a lot about myself while doing so, but have come no closer to reaching a conclusion than when I started. Being that I am simply tired of trying to sound eloquent and coherent, I'm just going to go for it. If it's sloppy, I'm sorry.

I'm young (25) and have come from a background of ignorance. Not to say my family is stupid, quite the contrary, they have simply been duped by the machine for so long that they are full steam ahead on the "American dream" and are very out of touch with what is truly going on in the world. Coming from the comfort and safety of ignorance, learning of how unjust our world is is very overwhelming. I want to think that I can be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem, but I really don't know how. I don't know where to start. What's more important, reclaiming our society from avarice and greed? Saving our environment before it turns its back on us? Educating the bigots and bastards? Creating true peace amongst our brothers? Releasing the grip of global capitalism (am I being redundant now?)? I mean, what's the score here? Where is the biggest punch needed?

You guys have been going toe-to-toe with the Dark Side for awhile now, is it worth it? Is there hope and if so, what can I do to deliver that hope? I'm sorry to be whining on your shoulder, but I just don't know what to do. I meet too many people that just don't care that it makes me wonder why I do. If the human race is so historically self-serving and full of hate, should we really be trying to save ourselves?

I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Beau, via e-mail

G.P. replies: This isn't an advice column, but here's my experience for what it's worth: 1) You don't have to save the world by yourself. You're not alone. There are a lot of "us," more, in fact, than you'd ever dream from a lifetime of corporate media. Creating more of a sense of community among people who care is part of why a bunch of us volunteers crank out ETS! every week. 2) What issue is most important? Whatever part is most important to you. In my mind, it's all one issue--the sanctity and wondrous gift of life--and trying to improve our lot in it just breaks out into a bunch of related subissues (the economy, the environment, whatever). Do what you enjoy and what you think will make a difference. And "making a difference" can mean winning policy victories, but it also can mean changing your life or the lives of the people around you for the better. 3) Is it worth it? I sure think so. I've lived as a cynical, disconnected worker trying to buy the dream, and I've lived as an activist trying (with what energy I can spare) to better the world around me. I'm a lot happier doing the latter, and maybe I've even touched some other lives and helped save the planet a bit, too. I recommend it.

How Many Presidents Does It Take To...

ETS!,

This is the first Hillary joke I have ever really liked:

During a recent publicity outing, Hillary Clinton snuck off to visit a fortune teller of some local repute. In a dark and hazy room, peering into a crystal ball, the mystic delivered grave news.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be blunt: Prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year."

Visibly shaken, Hillary stared at the woman's lined face, then at the single flickering candle, then down at her hands. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself. She simply had to know. She met the fortune teller's gaze, steadied her voice, and asked her question.

"Will I be acquitted?"