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.

For the Boys or Girls?

"There's nothing like reading about a woman with breast cancer who chooses radical mastectomy (get rid of 'em while you can!) instead of some save-'em-for-the-boys 'reconstruction' to really light up your day!"

Since when is breast reconstruction something women do "for the boys"? I think there has been quite a struggle going on trying to get medical care to pay for breast reconstruction as something entirely different from, say, a facelift... Maybe you should speak with Valerie Jean Rose about this topic.

Machines have parts, but people don't. We don't want to "de-part" from anything, and we don't have to invoke "function" to justify that. Especially breasts and penises--might be traumatic to many people to loose any of such "parts."

Is there any question that any sane woman would choose a complete mastectomy if faced with a significant risk of there being cancer cells in any remaining tissue? But if some post-mastectomy reconstruction was available, who wouldn't choose that, too?

There is a further, more general, implication in what you wrote, associated with the term "for the boys". It is common knowledge throughout most of the world (perhaps it's even reached some sectors in the United States?), that people--women and men--are sexual beings. This means two things: (a) healthy, sane women, will in general do "it" for themselves and for their partner at the very same time--though, realistically, there'll be times they'll do "it" just for themselves and other times they might do "it" just for their partner (boy or girl partner); and (b) even when you're celibate, you're still a sexual being all the same.

Being a sexual being may have something to do with a special attachment to one's breasts or penis, wouldn't you say? Loosing one of those "parts" is different from loosing, say, an ear lobe.

Of course many people would choose to reconstruct their breasts. Or their penis (but only for the girls, of course!). Bah! You're so silly sometimes.

Mariza Costa-Cabral, Hamburg, Germany

Now, that's sexy.

Not in the Print Version

First, a short correction to Maria Tomchick's "Only One Side of the Equation," which ran in the May 22 issue of ETS! In it, she stated that "60,000 people attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv in mid-May, but it was not reported here." However, the Seattle Times ran a story on a large peace rally (maybe Maria is referring to another rally) on May 12, which you can read at http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/displ ay?slug=rally12&date=20020512&query=israel+peace+rally.

Also, I want to add that I think discussion of Israeli internal politics is probably not crucial, at least not until we and the media acknowledge the huge role of US support for the Israeli occupation that all major Israeli parties agree on. I think it is through focusing on our government's role in the region that we can make the most progress, although I'm by no means trying to discount the courageous and useful work of people like Jacob Mundy. For a much more in-depth argument I'll refer you to an article by Noam Chomsky at www.zmag.org/content/Mideast/chomskyconstr.cfm

Sincerely,

Ira Woodward, via e-mail

When we look at Israeli society and politics, we might be surprised at how much it resembles our own--and how appalling that is. We still, after all, live in a largely segregated society here in the US.

Adjunct Professor's Testimonial

Last year I taught 8 classes, one short of a full time load. My total compensation was 18K. I work pretty hard. In a typical quarter I lecture for three hours a day, five days a week. The rest of the day I spend preparing lectures or handouts, occasionally working on my dissertation for an hour or two. Every three or four weeks I take a day off and give an exam. Of course, those days are immediately followed by a full weekend of grading. The state, that is, the public, the tax payer, is getting a pretty good deal on adjunct college instructors. Perhaps too good.

Over the past couple of decades, tight budgets in higher education have created an underclass of highly trained professional educators working for slave wages with no security and laughable benefits. Now our state, facing budget problems, has adopted a statewide hiring freeze. This means there will be no new full time positions for logic teachers this year. And next year looks worse yet.

I do now and then consider giving up my career as a $10 an hour educator. I'm sure, Microsoft, would have some use for a person with my analytic skills and my background in formal languages. Given the decade I have invested in graduate level training, that would be a hard move to make. The slightest financial strain would give me no choice though. I went into higher education in philosophy because I thought it the most worthwhile thing I could do. I still believe that helping people to think more clearly is a valuable service to society. I would like to continue. My tastes are modest to the point of ascetic austerity. But with my own son's future to consider and the Washington voter's penchant for tax cutting, I'm not sure I can continue to work for the public good.

Russell Payne, via e-mail

Identity Card Politics

Supermarket identity cards pushed on consumers by two-tier pricing are just one more negative result of too much market consolidation in the food industry (and not just supermarkets). In the largest 100 US metropolitan areas, four food retailers typically control 72% of the supermarket sales (USDA, 2000).

In Seattle, just two companies, Kroger (QFC/Fred Meyer) and Safeway, own more than two-thirds of the supermarkets, with the concentration rising to 85% in NE Seattle (PI, March 2, 2002). Having critical industries like food production and food distribution controlled by too few national/international companies has other adverse consequences besides the loss of privacy through carding: upward price creep; reduced product choice; less consumer influence on product quality and product content (e.g. genetically modified organisms); elimination of small and mid-size farm producers, processors, and suppliers; reduced negotiating room for food industry workers; and a smaller percentage of the food dollar recycled in the local economy.

It is a mistake to think food industry consolidation benefits consumers through lower prices. Consolidation benefits large food corporations primarily at the expense of those that grow the food. Statistics for the 1990's show that the average rate of return on investment for food retail chains was 18%, while, over the same period, the average rate of return to farmers on sales was less than 2.4%. The same market basket of food actually netted a farmer 36% less in 1999 than it did in 1984 (US Senate Agriculture Committee, 1999).

Consumers need to voice opposition to food industry consolidation that makes possible price-forced food-access identity cards.

Register a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Competition, and with the Washington State Attorney General about the oligopolistic supermarket ownership distribution in Seattle. Request that Congress see the FTC more vigorously enforce existing anti-competition laws. Consider shopping, where and when possible, at the dwindling number of local, independent markets. Refuse to shop where two-tier pricing and identity cards are in effect. Marketplace diversity and the choice of marketplace privacy are not things that we should give away by neglect.

Sincerely,

Bill Lavelle, via e-mail

Green Anarchy Tour

I'm an organizer for the Green Anarchy Tour July-Aug 2002. I wanted to contact you and your readers and encourage you to support the Green Anarchy Tour.

The GA Tour is an all day event with Speakers, A Film Fest, Eco Defence/Direct Action Workshop and punk rock show. Detailed info about the tour can be found at: www.greenanarchy.org/tour.

Please attend the Green Anarchy Events in a city near you and spread the word.

Smash Apathy!

John the Baker