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.

No on I-200

ETS!,

Initiative 200, if its proponents are to be believed, would finally rid us of the blight of "preferential treatment." Scott Smith, Tim Eyman, and John Carlson, as unlikely a trio of white guys to champion the cause of ending racism as might be imagined, have decided that "preferential treatment" is just unfair and unjust.

In the state of Washington, there are many jurisdictions (e.g., cities, counties, etc.) which grant "preferential treatment" (assuming the legitimacy of this term) to a number of different social groups. These social groups include: Vietnam-era veterans, specially disabled veterans, disabled people, people over 40 years of age, women, and people [who are oppressed because] of [their] color. For some utterly mysterious reason, however (this is sarcasm), our resident do-gooder white guy triumvirate have decided only to target the preferential treatment which would benefit the latter two of these six social groups. Weird, huh?

Leaving the aside the facts that: 1) in neither the ballot title, nor the ballot summary does the crucial term "preferential treatment" get clearly defined (would I-200's passage entail the dismantling of outreach programs for people of color and women? Who knows?), 2) the language of the ballot title is extremely confusing and misleading (check it out in the Voter's Guide), 3) a significant portion of the funding behind I-200 has come from out of state (call the Public Disclosure Commission), and 4) the result, in California, with identically-worded Prop. 209 having passed there, has been that of a devastating (and entirely predictable) rollback of the small gains which affirmative action had made on the ongoing, embedded race-, and sex-based injustices rife within our society. But one other point needs to be made. If preferential treatment is wrong (as our trio of enlightened white guys who've been stumping for this barbarity would have us believe) then it is wrong for everyone. Yet, I-200 would eliminate only preferential treatment for women and people of color. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that there is some other agenda, besides "civil rights," guiding the machinations of these guys.

--Dick Burton, SCCC, Seattle

Live from Colorado...

ETS!

The GLBT communities in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Boulder have lent its support to Matt Shepard's family and friends. We are organizing, somewhat frantically, it feels at times, with a sick homecoming scene in Fort Collins [a homophobic sorority float-ed.] and counter-demos at the St. Johns' Episcopal Church in Denver, where Matt lived in Capitol Hill [name of a Denver neighborhood too--ed.] and attended. The signs say, "No Special Rights" and "God will not tolerate the intolerable. Homosexuals Repent."

We did not see our almost 2,000 in numbers Denver rally on the media--just shots of men crying or consoling each other. No newspaper or TV coverage, just mention of rallies in LA, SF, Seattle, Denver, and D.C.

My prayers for the Day Without the Pentagon travellers, ETS!, NACC, and covert urban land trustees.

Te Amo,

--Laura Naranjo, Denver

Dogging the Whalers

ETS!,

I call bullshit on you. You can't suck up to Tlingits and Pueblos fighting the power in your "reclaiming our rights" then dog the Makah. Please, form a line under the sign reading "more non-Indians knowing what Indians really need."

--cchudson5@aol.com, via e-mail

Eat the Whale!

ETS!,

Regarding the Makahs and the whales...

Did they have outboards and .50 caliber rifles before?

I think it would be OK if they went out with no assist vessels and no outboards, spotter boats, or modern weapons.

Most likely, they'd die, which would be a better thing than if they kill a whale for their cultural renewal or whatever it is they are calling it.

I am not so crazy as to suggest that maybe we should renew our cultural practice of killing Indians, but I am sure there are many who are.

I have spent quite a bit of time out there in Neah Bay, and know several Makahs. They are all great people. None of the Makahs I know are in favor of the hunt.

Hell, I'd like to have some cultural heritage renewal myself, but I'm not planning on doing any of the murderous, senseless things my ancestors did while taking the continent away from the Indians.

Maybe we should kill the rest of the buffalo...at least we could use a gun and be replicating the past of our ancestors.

What possible purpose could the killing serve? Can't they find another route to restoring pride or dignity or whatever it is they think killing a whale is going to do for them?

It is obvious that what they are planning to do has no agreement in the world, and they are doing it in part from a resentment based on the wrongs perpetrated against their people...so where does killing a whale change that?

They will have a dead whale, and resentment.

I am sad. For the Makahs, and the whales. They both lose in this deal.

What do you bet most of the whale goes to waste if they manage to kill one?

Hope they don't.

--Gavin Dickinson, via e-mail

G.P. comments--These are--apparently--in response to a three-part "Stump Talk" series this summer which examined all sides of the whaling controversy: the non-Indians who want it stopped, the Makah who want commercial whaling, the traditional Makah who want sovereign rights but don't want commercial exploitation of whaling. How that constitutes "dogging" is beyond me. Meanwhile, while the heart of Gavin D.'s letter may be sincere, being sarcastic about, you know, hyuk hyuk, genocide, helps nobody. These letters, and others we've received, have all ignored the bottom line: the Makah have treaty rights that must be respected. How they as a tribe--as a nation--choose to implement them is their business, and nobody else's. And environmentalists are as capable of ugly racism as anyone else.

Seen Any Whales?

ETS!,

I'm working on a cruise ship...the only news sources we get on board our ship are CNN via satellite, and the occasional "New York Times FAX" (an eight-page version of the daily NY Times)...so I really appreciate reading ETS! and getting more perspectives on the nation/international news, and hearing news about home.

Thanks for the good work.

Ray Warrick, via e-mail

Start One!

Folks;

I just found your website via a link from Mother Jones magazine's "Mojo Must Reads" and I'm quite impressed.

We need a publication/website like this in Portland, Oregon.

Keep up the great work!

Jim Bennett, via e-mail

More Fan Mail, We Think

Dear ETS!,

Way to keep washing those dirty dishes! No, you can not, and will not let that dead dog lie!

You people usually have both feet on the ground, and don't seem to let yourself down; I am glad you are here. You are very good dirty dish washers! I am liking your process and progress. You are such positive negative generators, in creating the possiblities of positive outcomes. I just read recently: "there is no such thing as mis-communication, only outcomes." Keep filling up the holes, we can create a positive world, by realizing our negative mistakes. (There are only outcomes.) We have to take our past, both positive and negative, and walk backwards into the future. Take the violence and abuse we have experienced, or created, into our future with us, and make it a positive outcome, by creating less of it. Do not let the dead dog lie! She will always be with us. Keep talking, sooner or later, people will feel it.

I enjoyed your last issue: the atomic bomb was/is wrong. People should not be dying, trying to protect trees. Natural medicine works. (It may taste bad, but it works.)

I lack in the ability of sustaining effort, I get sidetracked too easily, but I am learning. Keep yours up, I love you people! Not that I feel you are always correct, but you sure don't shut up.

Sincerely,

Space 2000 and Lilith Lightfield Love, Seattle