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.

Shrub in Bigotland

Kelly Miles first heard about George W. Bush's appearance at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist college that used to bar black students and still bans interracial dating, on NPR. "I waited in gleeful anticipation for the NPR reporter to skewer Bush like a sow at a pigroast," Miles writes, "but she continued on without a peep. What the fuck!" ("Shrub in BigotLand," Feb. 16.)

What exactly does Miles want? Most of us are capable of drawing the obvious conclusions about Bob Jones University simply from hearing about its odd policies. There's no need for the reporter to then spend a minute frothing at the mouth, shouting about the injustice of it all. Not in a newscast.

And it's not as though there's been any such shortage of such frothing in the rest of the media. If anything, the story's been incredibly overplayed. Bob Jones, after all, has long been a standard stop for Republicans seeking the White House. Bush's appearance there need not reflect any racism on his part (let alone fascism, as Miles claims); it merely shows the sort of people Bush feels one must pander to in order to get the GOP nomination. I don't doubt that a Bush presidency would do many things of which I'd violently disapprove, but he's about as likely to bring back Jim Crow as he is to invade Venus.

This is not to say there are not hypocrisies to be found in Bush's appearance at BJU. The most interesting was pointed out by the conservative economist Jude Wanniski, who uses capital letters and exclamation points almost as freely as Miles does. Bush defended himself, Wanniski noted, by saying he meets with people he disagrees with all the time; just because he's spotted with someone doesn't mean he agrees with them. Well and good, wrote Wanniski. "Trouble is, George," he continued, "when you were asked a few months back if you would meet with the Log Cabin Republicans, who are openly homosexual and lesbian, you said you would NOT!!! I am a bit confused, as I believe most people are, in trying to divine your philosophical bent."

Not a bad point. I think I would've preferred to have read it in Eat the State!.

Jesse Walker, Los Angeles

On The Other Hand...

I totally agree with the writer of this article. What the hell are we as a voting populace doing even considering a candidate that patronizes an overtly racist and anti-Catholic (they called Catholicism a Satanic Cult) institution (if it even warrants such a name)? Not only is this incident horrible from the aspect of modern liberal thought, it's doubly offensive to my sense of decorum because he was stupid enough to frequent a place such as this while running for president. What the hell was he thinking? I'm sure that Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell's piggy little jowls were shaking with glee when they heard that Bush was going to go there. I am more scared of these two men's influence on American policy than I am of anything else. They are blatantly Klanist and yet manage to hide their black, evil views behind a veneer of an even uglier, zealous Protestantism. NPR and all thinking persons should be ashamed of this horrible display of the callous pandering of today's politicians for anyone with influence and money to get them elected.

Ryan C. Reeves, Austin, TX

Amazon.com Boycott

I thought I'd drop you a line about the boycott of Amazon.com that's going on in case you haven't heard. The guy who called the boycott (Richard M. Stallman) is winner of the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," and founder of the Free Software Movement. I mentioned him in the article I wrote about free software for ETS! a couple years back.

Here's the boycott web site: http://www.nowebpatents.org.

Here's another article about the Amazon.com boycott by a law professor who is also serving as the judge's special counsel in the Microsoft trial: http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,8999,00.html.

Brian Dellert

Swedish Halts Abortion Services

As you surely have already heard, Swedish and Providence hospitals are merging. What you may not know yet--I just found out today--is that as part of the merger agreement, Swedish has agreed to cease providing abortion services. This is only the latest in mergers across the country in which Catholic-owned organizations have forced non-Catholic health care providers to cave in to their ideological position.

The takeover of the health care system by Catholic-affiliated organizations has been so extensive in states like California that people in some areas literally cannot get access to a full range of contraceptive services--not just abortion, but sterilization, morning-after pills, etc. As I recall, some Catholic affiliated providers are refusing to provide any contraception whatsoever; in regions where there's only one hospital and network of providers, this is a crisis. The California legislature introduced legislation to try to deal with the problem within the last few months. I don't know what the status of it is.

Anyway, this is a very serious threat to the reproductive freedom and choice of women in this area, particularly those who may need procedures like late-term abortions that can only be performed in a hospital. Swedish/Providence has a phone line set up to take public comments on the issue and I strongly urge your friends and allies to call ASAP (I called and the women encouraged me to give the number to others who have views on the subject). The number is: 1-877-813-1350.

Swedish says they intend to build a completely separate facility for performing abortions. No mention on where or how long it will take. The whole concept must bring joy to the hearts of Operation Rescue--another isolated facility they can bomb!! Also, no one has answered the question about the ER offering the morning after pill to rape victims. Providence does not. Will Swedish? It may be that Harborview or UW will be the only places where rape victims should be taken. Ask the questions. Make the calls. This is important.

I hope we can mobilize a significant response to this. Thanks for your help.

Anonymous, via e-mail

The Forgotten

I bought today's copy of the New York Times to line my cat's box, which is really the only good use for the damn thing, unless you have a fish to wrap, and noticed that on the 6th page there was a 7 line by 2 inch blurb that said something about the US and Britain flying 36 combat missions against Iraq, killing a couple civilians and wounding others. I thought this strange as a sharp contrast to the front page article about U.S. soldiers confiscating a few rifles from some Kosovars, or the overblown hype about yet another Chinese threat to invade Taiwan.

The war in Iraq has been going on for 10 years now and even the revitalized left seems to doze at the thought of yet another bombing run against the forgotten inhabitants of that ruined nation. I declare victory for Bill Clinton. He has managed to lull us all to sleep and allowed Global Capitalism to take center stage in left-wing politics, while we sit on our hands instead of raising our fists.

Next time we talk about the environment, let's not fail to mention the environmental devastation we've caused in Iraq. When we talk of workers' rights, let's include the rights of the Iraqi people who, I'm sure, only want a return to "normalcy" and the freedom to live without fear of our bombs and suffering from our sanctions. When we talk of social and economic equality, let's remember that a great portion of our money rains down on that nation in the form of missiles and jet fuel, as we sleep or watch "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire Wife-Beater?"

James Taylor, via e-mail

Stopping the Cops

First Rodney King, then Amadou Diallo. Has anything changed? Has any local government or police department anywhere taken measures to guard against police violence against innocent citizens?

If such measures have been taken, I have not heard about them. But I have some ideas for things that can be done. I read a newspaper article saying the judge in the Diallo case instructed the jury for eight whole hours in the various legal justifications for police shootings. Undoubtedly it was this that allowed the jury to return its verdict of not guilty.

The jury may have felt that it had no choice. But that non-choice was given to it by the judge. Instructions to a jury are based on laws. Laws are made by legislators. Legislators are, theoretically speaking of course, answerable to the people.

It would be more than worthwhile to obtain a transcript of these jury instructions, look up the relevant laws, and demand that they be rewritten. If they can allow a man to be shot 41 times in a lighted doorway, then they have to go, and so do any legislators standing in the way. This process should be undertaken not just in New York but in every state.

I realize that this may sound naive. Laws alone will not stop murderous police. But growing public outrage needs to be coupled with effective action, and this campaign could weaken the institutional legal support that allows cops to get away with murder.

I view strategies like this in the context of a peace process--like the (hopefully not dead) one in Northern Ireland. It's true that violence has escalated in recent years, though violence has always been as American as apple pie, napalm, and professional wrestling. But no gun control measures can ever hope to succeed while an occupying army roams the streets with overwhelming, uncontested firepower.

Indeed, if we apply the metaphor of war, things seem to fall into place, and even point to possible solutions. The police are an occupying army. They view people of color and those who live in poor areas as the enemy, hence their deadly reactions to perceived threats. If this were northern Ireland, no U.S. diplomat would suggest that only one side make efforts to disarm. No, any arms reduction for the people has got to be matched by arms reduction for the police. This must be achieved by destroying not only weapons but laws that protect murderers in uniform.

Dan Tenenbaum, Seattle