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.

Other Solutions

This may seem obvious to some people, but I think alternatives to the U.S./NATO attack on Yugoslavia need to be heard more. The U.S. public now thinks there is no alternative and is largely supportive of the Clinton administration's role in leading the bombing campaign.

The U.S. war machine knows that people want to help alleviate the suffering of the Kosovar Albanians. We've been told that the purpose of the U.S./NATO attacks is to defend ethnic Albanians against the Serbian army and police. I don't think there will be significant public pressure to halt the escalating air strikes unless non-violent ways to help the Kosovar Albanians are spelled out.

U.S./NATO posturing and military force have exacerbated the situation. Air strikes must be halted immediately. We should provide refugees in Albania and Macedonia with orders-of-magnitude more humanitarian aid than we are currently giving. Homes should be made for refugees outside of Kosovo, wherever they wish to go. The international community should impose economic sanctions through the U.N. (not the kind of inhumane sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Iraq through the U.N.). Serbians who did not support violence against Kosovar Albanians must be given another chance to assert themselves.

This would be much more sane than trying to bomb the Serbian people into submission. The peace movement in the U.S. must make such alternatives heard, or the Clinton administration-led bombing campaign will continue unabated.

Andrew Fung, Kirkland, WA

Immediate Impact

The remarks made by Geov Parrish in "Skipping Class" (ETS! 4/7/99) in regards to the Seattle media's treatment of the Garfield teachers walk-out versus the coverage of the rally for waterfront workers could be the subject of an entire article, in that there are other factors contributing to the difference besides a mere aversion to blue collar workers.

Striking teachers have an impact on the economy, in that there are all of those parents of students that have to stay home, and this means they do not go to work. This has a mild impact on the economy locally, as business tries to get things done and fulfill contracts, with a short work force. It is a natural trend to massive action that the business community fears and despises, and therefore they are vigilant. It has a direct effect on daily life. If it continues, expect to see the teachers painted as greedy, and their union painted as uncompromising.

As for workers on the waterfront, a rally has little impact economically or politically. A rally does help serve those who are organizing a particular campaign, and want to build on that, but a rally is merely informational, and is ignored because it can be ignored.

There is an irony to all of this. We may see a reversal of these roles, if the employers in the shipping industry decide that they want to undermine the longshore contract. The Daily Journal of Commerce, the Seattle Times, and the Oregonian now and again spit out an article about the employers being "concerned" with productivity in the ports (i.e. that workers won't succumb to speedups), and constant complaints of the union's work stoppages. The ILWU newspaper, The Dispatcher, keeps the membership on alert of a possible strike this summer. If the employers continue their assault on waterfront workers who are organized, and those that are trying to organize (like the independent truckers), expect that the media will suddenly pay attention, and decide that blue collar workers are their worst enemy, based on the reasons stated above about why the teachers are getting attention now.

In Solidarity,

--John Persak, Seattle

Help Me

The other day I was talking to a friend about the CIA posing as UNSCOM agents and she didn't believe me that it happened, so I decided that I'd get some references off the Web. After a couple of hours of searching I was only able to come up with one reference, your "Bombs Away" article from the March 10 issue of ETS, which I already knew about. I was able to find plenty articles about the US denying the allegations, but nothing actually reporting about the actual story. Maybe I'm not the best detective, but this seems somewhat suspicious to me. On that vein, I think it would be useful if you put some references (links) in your articles. Next time I need to convince people that all is not peachy keen in the U.S., I'll know where to look.

One more thing, do you know of a similar publication to ETS! that's based in California, preferably the San Francisco Bay Area?

Thanks for reading my mail,

Afam Agbodike

M.T. replies: I don't know where you looked on the Web, but I found the story in numerous AP and Reuters wire service articles and articles from the Washington Post, CNN, BBC, and the New York Times--not exactly obscure sources. Next time, you could start your search by visiting the international news page at www.yahoo.com, a free Internet service provider. Otherwise, use a different search engine. Not all of them are good ones. As to your question about Bay Area publications: sorry, I don't live there, so the answer is "no."

Help Them

As an ETS! subscriber, activist, and journalist, I'm writing to voice my concern on one small little issue.

I've noticed now, on several occasions, the surprising hostility of your printed replies to people who write you asking for information of one sort or another. In the most recent issue, a college student, lindsey@xyz.net, writes you regarding the massacres of Native Americans, asking for information. Is the request indicative of how many young students are hesitant to do their own research--or, perhaps more to the point, unskilled in research methodologies? Yes. But at the same time, her request is neither hostile nor arrogant--it's simply a request, and a flattering one at that.

"I am happy we live in a country that allows us to speak our minds," she optimistically opens her letter. Your reply? "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. It's a book. And how the fuck are we supposed to know Amazonian vocabulary? Again: We are volunteers..."

Here's the truth of the matter: You run a publication. Although you may resent being emailed about issues or questions, you have nonetheless assumed a position of knowledge, opinion and even expertise on given subjects affecting the local or national community. As such, you cannot expect not to be contacted by young people, by people new to the community, by students, etc., who may view you (and quite accurately, I may add), as people who KNOW SOMETHING.

To respond with hostility to these kinds of questions is, to my mind, a way of further alienating people who may have activist potential, who may be seeking new and different ways of looking at the world, and yet who may feel somewhat intimidated by progressive or radical activism. Why jump down their throats, adding insult to injury by printing their not-intended-for-publication requests for information?

If you're loathe to help people out for lack of time and lack of income, develop a standard e-mail or phone response letter, explaining the purpose and intent of your publication, indicating your appreciation of their question but clarifying your inability to help out with the request. It would really be that simple. The other way of approaching this leaves me feeling embarrassed and more than a bit saddened for the future and continuity of progressive/radical activism.

With best wishes,

Silja J.A. Talvi

M.T. replies: When a college student asks us to do her research work for her, the standard answer is and should always be "use the library, that's what your professor intended when she/he gave you this assignment." Unfortunately, too many students are accepting the idiotic notion that the World Wide Web is a complete compendium of historical information, and that anyone who can do a publication over the Internet is a fount of free and easy information. Just ain't so. In fact, there's a lot of misleading information on the Internet to be had from folks who call themselves "experts." We've never done that and we're not going to start now. On the other hand, there's also a large body of work on Native American History from the viewpoint of Native Americans--much of which probably sits neglected on the shelves of her school's library or in her nearby bookstore. As for the standard form letter, I DO have a standard, brief reply to folks who ask us these kinds of questions: "No." For example:

Helpless

Need any information pertaining to Seattle's "Best" Coffee, and their coffee plantations in Guatemala. Doing a final project for a Corporate Responsibility class. Needs to be done by Thursday. HELP, HELP! Please send ANYTHING to seven1204@hotmail.com ASAP!

Thanks,

Kevin Scullin, via e-mail, on Wednesday, the day before his project is due.

M.T. replies: Kevin, the answer is "No, you fool!"

Hopeless

Can anybody up there tell me if Susan Powter is still on the radio? And if not--what happened to her?

Thanks,

Melissa Tyson, via e-mail

M.T. replies: "No."

Clueless

Do you know of any groups in the area we can contact to check up on a certain Doctor? We got really reamed a while back. We also would like to find out how many women who gave birth at the U.W. also were told three months after that they had abnormal cells or cervical dysplasia? Then did they get that wacky new leep procedure? If you know any contacts that would be great.

Thanks, have a peaceful day,

whtwillow5@aol.com, Seattle M.T. replies: "No." And so it goes on, and on, and on. These letters keep coming in, clogging up our e-mail, taking up our time, and pointlessly asking the wrong people (us) questions that could be easily answered by looking in a stupid phone book or checking the local library. Get off your butts! Geez. This laziness makes me feel embarrassed for "progressives" and sometimes quite pessimistic about the future of the Left.

A Racist Asshole Perspective

I used to be a hippie years ago, until I figured out how stupid your viewpoint is. It's not that it took me long, it's just that I wanted to live free. Your attitude against the Constitution is THE problem. Those "dead white presidents" and their Constitution is the reason that you live free today. I am assuming by your diatribe that you are black or ultra liberal. If white people didn't respect that document, then you would still be enslaved, or dead. Many of us (white people) wish you no ill will, it's just that we want for you to contribute to the well that you draw your water from. We all have to work for a living, and it ain't easy for any of us. Those dead white presidents gave us all a gift that is irreplaceable. Before you buy the diatribe of Bill Clinton and the communists, talk to a Russian.

--Ralph Carson, via e-mail

M.T. replies: Did you forget to take your medicine today, Ralph? Or maybe you read something on the Internet that erroneously claimed that the Constitution was signed after the Civil War? Or that no dead, white presidents ever owned slaves. Or ... aw, forget it. I think I WILL talk to a Russian; I'd probably be pleasantly surprised by how much U.S. history a Russian person knows--certainly more than our friend Ralph!