US too Shall Pass

In a recent news broadcast: An American soldier in Iraq tells the folks of a town that their town will be punished. I was really taken aback to hear that, it makes one wonder if there is a difference between this American soldier in Iraq or an Israeli soldier in the Occupied Territories or a Nazi soldier in WWII. The mentality of collective punishment raises its ugly head in all wars, there is no difference in the behavior of soldiers at war, they all act in the most bestial way.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter who wins a war, the winner is going to shape the world in his own image after the war is over. The Germans wanted to be the master race, so did the Afrikaner Boers in South Africa during the long years of Apartheid. The same is true of the Zionists in Israel. And now here we are imposing our will on the entire globe.

Had we lost WWII the world would be no different, it just would have had a different master. War is only a means of imposing a country's will over another by force for a while. Mother Earth is still the same, only a minor change in countries' borders or spheres of influence takes place, until another war and another minor change, and so on.

In the process the victor enjoys the spoils while bringing about untold suffering to the vanquished, when it's really totally unnecessary, earth inhabitants can resolve all their conflicts by peaceful means and live in peace if they so choose. They ought to return to basic principles and obey the ten commandments, special amongst which is #10:

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'

Sincerely,

maxwell h. scherwyn, via e-mail

ETS!,

Geov has stated in at least three forums, including the July 2 ETS!, that the University of Washington's "cancerous lower campus expansion has been driven almost entirely by corporate and military research contracts." If "lower campus" refers to what the UW calls the South Campus, or the Health Sciences Building and hospital, then I think that Geov is wrong and perhaps he might be willing to cite a source for this claim. Health Sciences research money is mostly from the National Institutes of Health and similar public-health agencies. Their research should be encouraged, and I've been happy to have been a Health Sciences employee for the past fourteen years.

The largest employer within the city limits of Seattle is the University of Washington. University employees like myself who are Seattle residents don't regard the UW as "cancerous", but rather as a good place to work.

Geov writes, "Who, exactly, does the state's largest land-grant university compete against?" In Seattle, no one; but nationally, against lots of institutions who are well prepared to ace out the UW for competitive grants, and who often do. This is the reality of public-health work, in which the UW is an internationally prominent leader. The lease lid directly affects the ability of the UW to continue to hire non-managerial, non-faculty leftist readers of ETS! like me to do some of the last remaining work with federal money that saves lives instead of killing or invading people.

Billy Kreuter

Still the Party of Lincoln

On July 6, 1854 activists against slavery met forming the first plank of the Republican Party, "to prohibit those twin relics of barbarism: polygamy and slavery." The Republican Party still carries the plank in principle and follow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Affirmative Action is contrary to Dr. Kingbs dream, putting one race over that of another. In Affirmative Action, discrimination is perpetuated by Government policies that are dividing this nation between the skin colors of its citizens. Support the Democratic Party and you support continued separation between the races. Support the Republicans and you will support the principle that each person by the content of their character makes of themselves their status in society.

Roger W Hancock Auburn, WA

Why Save Tibet?

Left in the dust of the human race are tiny remnants of tattered cultures trying desperately to hold on to the keys that unlock the great mysteries of life. Did the American Indians understand things that we will never know? And what of the Aborigines of Australia? Did one ever find proof of the existence of the human soul while on a walkabout? One of these keys also belongs to the Tibetans.

Our modernized world seems to have little concept, respect or need for the idea of a human spirit. In the West, few are listening to a handful of people who still question the purpose of life. TV evangelists offer the closest thing to mass appeal for religion and soul searching, but, only if we call 1-900 and donate today...right away.

The concept that solutions to the ills of the world lie within the content and quality of each individual's heart are now lost on the "me" generation. Bigger weapons, faster computers and wireless technology are the answers and things have become the gods. More money, more power, more...that is the new sound of Om, the new amen, the new shalom.

"Free Tibet" is a cause that has risen on the world stage to the level of the Nobel Peace prize for the Dalai Lama in 1989.

For most who know their plight of human annihilation and cultural desecration by the Chinese over the past 50 years, the soul of Tibet is embodied in the Dalai Lama. Every Tibetan seems to contain a portion of that soul.

While life holds little mystery, those who have come in personal contact with the Dalai Lama can at least recognize that his gentle presence is powerfully felt like a mystery of life. To the ingrained Judeo-Christian sensibilities of the West, in its understanding of the Tibetan cause, the Dalai Lama is ironically seen as the symbolic representation of Tibet's soul. Ironic because Tibetan Buddhism does not recognize the existence of a permanent human soul, but rather a transitory spirit trying to find its way to being nothing more than truth. What is it about the Save Tibet effort that seems to maintain a hold on the one element of human nature that we cannot define in DNA or through technology? Do we recognize that we can not let another culture be swallowed up lest we lose all chance to find and prove there is something greater within us than DNA, cells and bone and flesh?

Why will the concept of saving Tibet not stop nagging at the collective conscience? A Tibetan monk, when asked what he thought was in it for those in the West who were trying to help Tibet, said there is nothing in it for us, except that it is right. When asked about becoming a Buddhist, one Lama answered that religion should be a choice that follows one's own tradition. A person should pick a religion that matches their nature because religion is there to make people better.

China is rising on the world stage as a military and economic force. China could save Tibet with a slight change in policy and in doing so it would rise above all other great nations. Their current path is to gut the Tibetan culture, while leaving a corpse dressed up to attract tourist dollars as a sort of Tibetan amusement park. Parading the image of the Tibetan culture will undoubtedly part of the propaganda gained when China presents the 2008 Olympics.

But realistically, there will be no great change coming from China. That leaves it to us to do what ever we can, large or small, to help the Tibetans save their culture. Individually we will gain nothing from the effort, but in saving Tibet we prove the existence and power of the human spirit.

--Joe Mickey, Tibetan Photo Project, www.tibetanphotoproject.com

Corporate Body Image

I write you regarding the "Radical Body Politics for Women" article of your 2 July 2003 issue. Thank you for printing this article. Kudos to Kirsten Anderberg! I found it well written and very necessary. Earlier this year for my English 101 course I wrote a paper analysing the image of the "ideal woman" found in the media. In writing this paper I delved into the world of body image and body acceptance. Many sources discussing body image point out the issue of body image, where it comes from (the media), and how to deal with it. But this ETS! article went a step further to identify the issue's connection to the CORPORATIONS and the status quo. I appreciated this link that others leave out. Body image is a very important issue today, and has the potential to become the primary focus of feminism. We must remember that oppressive corporations are trying to structure the way we feel about ourselves and we must fight back! Thank you again for this article.

in Peace,

Brian Smith, Tacoma WA