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.

I Know! Let's Dream of a Worse One!

You write:

"How did we get to this point, where liberals and lefties will vote in a straw poll for the desultory middle simply because we are too tired or scared or lazy to dream of a better world?"

Because you invoke Orwell, I'll put aside your overall point in this sentence and concentrate on a little Newspeak--"to dream of a better world."

I'm not too tired, scared, and lazy and, being a liberal, I dream all the time. I simply know that the notion of a "better world" is at, best, a poorly framed concept--pure narcissism. In America (and I'm just highlighting here), it dates back to the idea of Manifest Destiny, turns totally ugly with Wilsonian foreign policy and domestic repression, and has reached an apotheosis of sorts in Bushism. Abroad, a "better world" has given us, to pick some random examples, The Terror, the Holocaust, Pol Pot, and apologetics for Stalin (who certainly had no such dreams). Not to mention the Taliban. One needn't be a Pangloss to dismiss the notion that the world can ever get "better." One simply needs to be aware that the world is a fiendishly complex place, that attempts to "improve" it often (usually, perhaps) make it worse, and that the assumptions coded in the seductive phrase "dream of a better world" are an invitation to global violence and horror, not harmony.

But I agree wholeheartedly with this: "If nothing else, giving everything up right from the beginning to 'Anybody But,' no questions asked, is a poor bargaining strategy."

Damn right. So I wish you the best.

But come the revolution, please behead me first. So far, I've lived long enough to endure three revolutions in this country--the sixties, Reagan, and now the worst, Bush--and I really don't want to suffer through another, thank you very much.

Best,

Tristero, via e-mail

T.S. responds: You got me. I didn't realize that anyone reading ETS! would be astute enough to see through my coded exhortation for genocide. From now on I'll couch my invitations to global violence in other poorly framed concepts like freedom, democracy, or eliminating the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. But yes, it was sloppy writing on my part.

A Halloween Casualty

I want to let you know that your article, the "Missing Portraits," was great. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday...it's always been the least hassle (no great family tension, etc.), and the most fun for me. I've always loved dressing up as a bloody, dripping wet corpse. This year, my plan was to be the Terminator--which came off very well a couple of years ago when I did that. Anyways, I was at Display and Costume, two days before Halloween, looking for the right gear for it--specifically looking for the latex Terminator mask, and I got totally frustrated because I couldn't find it. Overall, my costume wasn't coming together. I had been feeling uneasy, and unsure if I really wanted to represent California's governor-elect...and a totally novel idea came to mind.

"Why don't I be a US Soldier--one of the thousands of victims of our Iraq invasion?"

It was an epiphany that seemed revolutionary to me. "Make Halloween meaningful?!!" Whoa...

But it also felt refreshing and empowering. I've struggled so hard to find a way to process and voice my anger and frustration about the Invasion...and this seemed like the perfect choice.

So I did it. I wore fatigues, and had bullet holes and bloody burn scars all over my body. My wife thought it might be offensive and disrespectful to the people who actually did die. But I disagree, because if I had been in a less fortunate economic situation in high school, I may have joined the military for money--which is what some of my friends did. And I could very well be one those portraits.

So I wore my No Iraq War pin as the finishing touch, to clear up any confusion about what statement I was making. I wore my costume to school all day (at UW), and walked around the U-District a bit to get visibility. I wanted to show people that Halloween can be a lot more than simply ghosts and goblins. After all, the scariest stuff I know of is happening in our world--not in horror movies--but right now, in our world, and most visibly in Iraq.

Thank you,

Tristan Heberlein, Seattle

Sign It Today!

I-297 is an initiative to stop nuclear waste dumping at Hanford, in Eastern Washington. It is sponsored by a coalition of progressive organizations and politicians and has a web site at www.protectwashington.org. It also has a campaign office at 5505 University Way NE, where people are encouraged to meet at 9:30 on Saturday mornings (until Dec. 31) before gathering signatures to place this initiative on the ballot.

The Hanford nuclear dump is a fiasco, with existing containment facilities that leak. Plans for cleanup of the site have been a low federal priority, and now the feds want to dump more nuclear waste there. Because of the proximity of Hanford to the Columbia River, it is a potential ecological catastrophe. Personally, I would like to have America's nuclear waste stored in an area that is less environmentally sensitive and local citizens less concerned, namely Crawford, Texas (location of Dubya's ranch).

Tony Formo, Seattle

G.P. adds: And don't forget to listen to Eat the Airwaves!, from 8:30 to 9, on the way to the meeting!