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.

Irv

Dear Geov,

I was saddened to learn of Irv Pollack's passing. He was a spark in Seattle's progressive community. In a word Irv was a "mensch."

--David Barsamian, Boulder CO

Spooked for Halloween

ETS!,

Have any of you read the recent Village Voice cover story about ECHELON, the U.S. owned and operated global intelligence network designed to spy and collect information on, you guessed it, us!? Yes--as if we didn't already assume this anyway--our government is spying on all of its own citizens every day, as well on the citizens of every other country on the planet, and has been for a long time.

However, what ECHELON represents above and beyond the intelligence operations of the past is the potential for our government to absolutely succeed in keeping up-to-date tabs on every single person using any electronic communications device at any time. Imagine that ECHELON is a large fish trawler's net encircling the globe, except that its net picks up all civilian electronic communication signals, scooping up everything in its path and sending it all to mega-computers that search through the phone calls, faxes and emails for any key words its programmers have ordered it to pin-point.

Those communications that are saved can be found and downloaded using special search engines and then read if it's a fax or e-mail, or listened to in real time if it's a phone call! So, if the feds wanted to see how many of us were discussing the bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan and what we were saying about it, they need only program the key words "Sudan" and "bombs" into ECHELON, then wait and search their catch and listen to us talk.

What's even more horrifying is that your precise location on Earth at the time of your communication is absolutely known to the satellite relaying your signals, and can be accessed at will. Even if you're on a dinghy in the middle of the Atlantic making a cell phone call, the military can drop a smart bomb directly on you using the traced signal. Now that's power! Just wait till this technology becomes affordable to local police departments. Next time you pick up your cell phone or write an e-mail, be sure that a big computer somewhere in this country, that our tax dollars most likely paid for, is recording your conversation and someone somewhere else is listening to it.

--Dave McGraw, Seattle

The Ritalin Letter

Dear Eat the State!,

Back in July, I read your article "The Disease of Childhood," feeling initially hopeful, then annoyed. As a parent and long-time child care professional I regularly watch for articles about children's issues. This piece was more of an expose of Ciba-Geigy, and rightly so. But unfortunately, in the process, it made light of what for some people, including thousands of children, is a genuine condition of maladaptive behavior problems, clinically referred to as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

In my work with young children who are neglected and/or otherwise abused by society and/or individuals in a variety of sometimes unimaginable and insidious ways, I've known many children identified as having ADD. I believe I know the difference between "hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity" (the scant characteristics you assign this highly complex syndrome), and normal, healthy, highly active, eager, and engaging children.

The use of any behavior or mood/mind altering prescription medications ought to be a last resort, used sparingly, and always in conjunction with counseling or other therapeutic intervention. I share your abhorrence at the sadistic methodology employed by C-G and was not surprised to learn that this company was backing CHADD.

But, CHADD does not speak for all people effected with or affected by ADD, and it apparently speaks in opposition to those of us who believe that "additive-free diets, ... too much television, food allergies, excess sugar, poor home life, or poor schools," do indeed produce the symptoms of ADD in children.

Further cause, I believe, is increased societal expectations of productivity and conformity, at a lower-than-ever age. Kindergartners, for example, are expected to know colors, letters, numbers, and be almost reading and able to write their names, before walking in the door on the first day of school. And social pressures to produce, consume, and be forever on the go cause enormous amounts of stress on parents and other guardians of young children, with or without behavior disorders, making a drug such as Ritalin an appreciable temptation for a "quick fix." (It would be a worthy follow-up to cover research being done in Naturopathic medicine rather than writing off this genuinely disabling condition as something requiring only "more or better parenting skills.")

Lastly, our society is excessively stimulating, especially to children starting out at a disadvantage and lacking the neurological ability to filter out the excess in order to take in what is useful. Which is exactly what had to do with your article. Thanks for the expose of C-G, but next time please be a little more sensitive to those whose suffering is genuine.

Erin Walsh, Seattle

I'm Sorry I Was A Total Moron

Dear whomever,

I owe you a great apology! I was already irritated when I saw your signs on 3rd and Cherry that said "Vote yes on (692?), it's about compassion." Mistakenly I confused them with the anti-abortion initiative that is medically contrived and simply ridiculous. I proceeded to tear down your signs in front of your face and throw them in the garbage can (I normally never tear down anything, whether I agree with it or not, but I wasn't using logic or good judgment). You and your friend, who happened to be sitting on the garbage can I threw the signs into, rightfully confronted me as I made a cowardly retreat. I was simply confused by your appearance, which was not that of a person normally against abortion, and your use of the phrase "you fucking redneck" which is what I would probably call someone who supports the "partial birth" initiative. Only about six blocks closer to work did I realize the ridiculous mistake I made in confusing your pro-medical marijuana posters for that of the "partial birth" initiative. I was unfortunately late and didn't have time to turn around and apologize to your face (and subsequently grovel at your feet). I worked on last years marijuana initiative and am glad that you are out volunteering your time in the fight to expand human liberty. Please accept my apologies.

--James, Seattle

Don't Do It

ETS!,

So I read your election special, and was glad to see how appalled ETS! was by the choices. Unfortunately, you went ahead and endorsed candidates anyway (truly the most despicable "service" that newspapers perform).

Just in case it's not too late, let me make a pitch for not voting, for anyone. When you enter the ballot booth, you leave behind civil society and enter the perverse world of force. A world where we elect scumbags and murderers to jail potheads and pornographers. A world where people argue, with straight faces, that systematic racial discrimination helps end racism. A world where politicians buy votes with expensive campaigns paid for by selling laws.

By voting you legitimize this system. Whether your candidate wins or looses, your ballot slip sanctions the power of the winners to govern. And just in case you missed it, here's Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on what governing means:

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded... noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished."

Want more? "It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown it all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, and dishonored."

Your vote makes all this possible. (Remember the Just Consent of the Governed?) And don't give me the horseshit that your candidates are different. That they'll Change the System. Make a Difference. When, in your lifetime, has any politician reduced his power, cut his salary, or even questioned his authority to make laws about a particular aspect of our lives?

Our Constitution has prevented the establishment of a state-sanctioned church, but hasn't kept the State from becoming a church unto itself. When you step behind the voting curtain (often located, appropriately enough, in a house of worship), you'll be genuflecting to the powers that be, whether in Washington State or Washington, D.C.

Don't do it.

--Matt Asher, Seattle

Save The Monorail!

ETS!,

Just thought you might like to know that our "dear friend" Jan Drago at the Seattle City Council is about to introduce a resolution to remove the remaining funding from the ETC (elevated Transportation Council, created last year by Monorail Initiative 41)--they only have $50,000 of the $200,000 allocated and she wants to remove that! Guess there's not much sense in having elections anymore, huh? We voted against a stadium and we got one anyway. We voted to create a council to study Monorail expansion in Seattle yet now we're not yet "smart" enough and they want to take that away? So, were the voters who elected Drago (who are they, I'd like to know besides the downtown development rah-rahs and the Seattle Times editorial board, who have valuable opinions connected with daily reality, all sarcasm intended double) "mistaken" too?

Let's put a stop to this nonsense and let the ETC do their job. They are making a lot more progress than "Sound" Transit and for virtually no money thus far! Go to our website (http://www.monorail.org) and e-mail the City Council and the Mayor in our "how to help" page!

--Kevin Orme, President, Friends of the Monorail, Seattle