I scanned the article greedily: "White House gunman shot." Did he get anybody before they took him out, I wondered. Was he an Al Gore fan? No and no, were the answers, but I noticed something else as I read through the article--something that made me angry. Here's a crazy, white guy from the Midwest standing in front of the White House, waving a loaded gun at people. A Secret Service guy shoots him in the kneecap through the bars of a wrought-iron fence. That's some fancy shooting. Then I remembered David John Walker, shot at nearly point-blank range in the chest, killed for waving a knife at no one in particular. Walker was a black man, and his murderer a Seattle Police officer, who still carries his gun and has a history of shooting at the slightest pretext. Never mind that the videotape of the shooting shows that Walker was not "lunging" with the knife, as cops claimed. Walker was black and in Seattle, and that makes all the difference.--Maria Tomchick

It's either high comedy or low tragedy, but Steven Soderbergh would understand. In late January, the Rand Corporation released a report commissioned by ex-drug czar Barry McCaffrey, which examined the drug-treatment budgets of 10 agencies that report to his office. What they found was this: these agencies overstated the amount spent on drug treatment by at least $1 billion. Nobody's really sure about the exact figure, because most of these agencies, including the Border Patrol, Veterans Affairs, the Department of Education, Customs, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, simply made up numbers for what they spent on drug treatment and prevention. The report found that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which controls $2 billion in block grants to states for drug treatment, relies on "arbitrary assumptions and rules" for collecting its data. In 1998, McCaffrey reported that $2.8 billion had been spent on drug treatment, while Rand estimates that it was closer to $1.8 billion or possibly less. It was undoubtedly a lot less--people who work full time treating addicts claim that less than half of the US's hard-core addicts get the treatment they need, and treatment centers turn people away on a regular basis.--M.T.

Community Action Network (CAN) has provided event space, meeting space, puppet-building space and plenty of resources for the activist community over the past seven years. In March it loses its current home down near Pioneer Square and needs your help in finding (and funding) a new home. Contact CAN with any leads (or send something to help with rent at a new higher priced location). PO Box 95113, can@drizzle.com 206-632-1656 www.seattlecan.org. Erica Kay

U.S. Representative Jim McDermott told a lie during his town hall meeting on January 27. When queried by a meeting attendee as to whether he would be willing to hold public debates with candidates like Seattle high school teacher Joe Szwaja of the Green Party during his next re-election campaign in 2002, McDermott, his nose getting longer by the second, said that he had publicly debated during the last election. This was an outright lie as the only time he debated Szwaja one-on-one was behind closed doors before the editors of the Stranger. Szwaja, in audience at this town hall meeting, raised his hand during the entire comment and question period and McDermott refused to recognize him. So much for McDermott's assertion that he is open to debating his challengers. Rick Giombetti

Seattle Central Community College philosophy prof and wonderful community activist Dick Burton was one of the central figures in the December controversy over the Paul Schell-inspired SCCC decision to demand $1800 in fees from community and student groups hosting a Dec. 2 forum on the WTO. At the time, SCCC administrators defended their decision to charge the fees by explaining that they applied to all non-student groups. Now Burton reports that: "SCCC administrators invited representatives from Mars, Inc. to promote their new Snickers 'Cruncher' bar for one full day to the campus community FOR FREE." Says Dick, "The apparent `policy' of the SCCC administration now seems to be as follows: `If you are a non-profit organization [and working with SCCC student groups--ed.] concerned about raising issues of concern for the political-economy of the Seattle community (and/or the state, nation, or world), and wish to engage in authentically educational efforts to do so-- neither attempting nor expecting to profit from your efforts--then you must pay for the use of SCCC space. But, on the other hand, if you are a for-profit corporation interested solely in marketing a new product to a captive audience on state-owned property so as to secure heightened sales, and not for the purpose of authentically educating anyone, then you are welcome to use SCCC facilities at no charge." Burton is asking folks appalled by these priorities--or who would like to see forum organizers get their $1800 back--to contact SCCC President Charles Mitchell: cmitch@sccd.ctc.edu; 206-587-4144; SCCC Director of Administrative Services George Gary: gegary@sccd.ctc.edu; 206587-4193; SCCC Dean of Student Development Services Bea Kiyohara: bkiyoh@sccd.ctc.edu; 206-587-3860; and/or SCCC Director of Student Development Services Lexie Evans: leevan@sccd.ctc.edu; 206-587-3890. --Geov Parrish

Hey did anybody else notice that Maria Tomchick was reporting in ETS!, and I was reporting on the Saturday AM KCMU show that energy companies apparently rigged the California power "crisis," about a month before the Seattle Times' Sunday feature on it this week? --G.P.

February is Black History Month. It is also American Heart Month, International Boost Self-Esteem Month, International Embroidery Month, Library Lovers Month, National Children's Dental Health Month, National Snack Food Month, and Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.) This profusion of special-interest months has one obvious omission. We need a White History Month. Let's have a whole month, with cable TV specials, museum exhibits, special curricula, the works, teaching young and old alike about the glory of White History--the good contributions, not just the wars and genocides and slave trading we learned about in school. It will boost the self-esteem of our young and help all of us appreciate the full diversity of the White Experience, from the wealthy WASPs who rule the country to the destitute bums living out of those unreturned shopping carts. And in the other eleven months, we can focus on everyone else.--G.P.