Letters
LETTERS to the Editor Bashing the Donkey While the decision of the House of Representatives to provide $100 million in aid to the contras was one of the most dire and damaging votes taken by that...
...I predict that one of these days, when Schorr joins Seymour Hersh, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and others in writing The Decline of the U.S...
...Such glorification is a disservice to those who have suffered and to those who perished while waiting for the golden gates to open...
...Once again The Progressive has attacked the Immigration and Naturalization Service without addressing the much larger problem of the illegal aliens who violate our borders...
...We believe it is an honest film, relevant for today as it relates a true story from the past...
...The name Outward Bound may refer to any one of five Outward Bound schools in the United States or to an Outward Bound school in any one of several foreign countries...
...Sid was able to demonstrate how the global corporate state has brought us to the brink of world catastrophe...
...But if there is any political imagination beyond the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, we are less likely to hear about it, given the Sandinistas' unimaginative decision to shut down La Prensa...
...The victim was, in fact, a loud-mouthed reactionary who damned the New Deal...
...Let's not glorify the "good old days" when analyzing immigration policies...
...Patterson Davidson, North Carolina Women and Bad Chemistry Tracy L. Barnett's article on reproductive hazards ("Bad Chemistry," July issue) contained a discussion of the case called Wright v. Olin Corp...
...There was a time when The Progressive gave serious consideration to the problems of world population and the degradation of the environment...
...We hope that readers of The Progressive will go see our movie...
...They strive to teach values—self-knowledge, compassion, and concern for others—by means of high-stress activities...
...I presume Landau would not bemoan La Prensa's passing...
...The arrogant attitude of sanctimonious self-righteousness and the "intelligent reasoning" that consists of sneering, smirking, and half truths have done a thorough job of turning me completely off the Left...
...I would retort that more than one "popular" government has stayed that way by destabilizing free speech...
...entry...
...In addition, more than 1.2 million cross our borders illegally...
...It's strange that The Progressive cannot find the space to mention that we accept more than 600,000 legal immigrants a year, and have for several years...
...Surely this account does not "glorify" the good old days...
...Veblen's observation about the threat of Twentieth Century revolutions to Vested Rights, which he described as the right to get something for nothing at the cost of the underlying population, holds true today...
...My grandparents arrived three years later in Canada, their sponsored American visas still not in hand...
...Therefore, the Defenders of the Established Order and Guardians of the Vested Interests have been thrown into a state of Red trepidation by the continued functioning of Soviet Russia and the continued outbreaks of the same Red distemper elsewhere on the continent of Europe...
...This is hardly a "calculated decision to abandon certain anti-interventionist positions of the Democratic Party and join up for the new anticom-munist crusades...
...It took us, Americans, almost four years to immigrate...
...Moreover, the Democrats are the only possible alternative to a continuation of Republican neo-imperial-ism in the 1988 Presidential election...
...They concluded that "the professional standards of journalism are not high enough, and the discipline by which the standards are maintained is not strong enough to carry the press triumphantly through a test so severe as that provided by the Bolshevik Revolution...
...It wasn't difficult to portray the judicial system accurately, since the courtroom testimony was taken verbatim from the actual sentencing hearing...
...The radiation standards now under consideration by the NRC represent a retreat from that responsibility, since the proposed standards would increase worker and public radiation exposures to some of the most harmful radionuclides to ten times or more the present "acceptable" levels...
...Why, then, is the NRC considering increased exposure limits...
...it lay heavily on all for many years, even turning back some of those who made it across the seas to our celebrated Lady in the Harbor, but were deemed unfit...
...Government's fiduciary responsibility for the public treasury was jettisoned...
...Hard Traveling is all that, and it is also a love story between two believable and caring human beings...
...Most of the fifty-one members who went along with President Reagan's terrorism in Nicaragua were conservative Southerners and other hawks, who unfortunately cannot readily be purged from the ranks of our Party...
...In addition, the new rule would allow pregnant workers to be exposed to levels of radiation in a range which has been shown to double the incidence of leukemia among children exposed in utero...
...Daniel M. Kirkpatrick Bellingham, Washington Soviet Sensibilities Robert Karl ManofFs "Soviet Sensibilities" (Media, August issue) reminded me of my first encounter with "Russia-bashing...
...mass-media reporting of the revolutions in Cuba, China, and Nicaragua would find the same thing that Lippmann and Merz found...
...This is not "glorification" of a proud precedent...
...Timothy W. Nelson San Jose, California Your art and graphics are simply the best...
...Mary Win O'Brien Assistant General Counsel United Steelworkers of America Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 'Acceptable* Nuclear Levels Iwas pleased to read your remarks on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's proposed radiation standards ("A Little Dab'll Do You," Comment, September issue), but I believe The Progressive's readers would be better served by a closer examination of the issue...
...Jeanne M. Stellman New York, New York The author replies: Jeanne Stellman may rest assured that I am familiar with the desperate, sometimes fatal trials of European immigrants who sought entry into the United States but were turned down or ignored...
...Experts agree that no level of radiation is "safe...
...Lippmann and Merz found that reporting of the February revolution was fair and unbiased, but that reporting of the November revolution was unfair and biased...
...Although I heard Sid speak at several gatherings over the years, I never got to know him personally...
...I have been in awe of the knowledge and insight expressed in his writings...
...By Invitation Only You are right to examine the question of U.S...
...Did once-prosperous German-Jewish intellectuals decide to chuck it all and become sharecroppers in Brazil rather than come to the United States...
...Kemp Houck Kansas City, Missouri Fan Mail Ihave subscribed to The Progressive for six years now, and have read every issue virtually cover to cover...
...We believe it makes strong statements about unemployment, about capital punishment, and about what it is that drives decent people to desperation...
...consulate in Hamburg in 1938...
...When I discovered the above, I was also discovering Thorstein Veblen, one of whose unique insights reveals the reason for the different treatment of the February and November revolutions: "Bolshevism is a menace to the vested rights of property and privilege...
...We were attempting to show that as the life story of our protagonist— a story based, by the way, totally on fact—developed, the courtroom was swayed and moved...
...We will all miss his wisdom in the difficult years ahead, and will have to strive all the harder to fill the void his death has left...
...we survived and made it in...
...The rule fails to consider nonfatal cancers, health disorders, and birth defects which occur beyond two generations...
...The NRC needs to be reminded of its mandate to protect radiation workers and the public—not the nuclear industry...
...This is our history—do not distort it...
...The NRC is responsible for protecting the health of American radiation workers and the public with regard to the harmful effects of ionizing radiation caused by private-sector nuclear activities...
...in the Fourth Circuit...
...Olin wanted to justify its policy, and the judge allowed the case to continue...
...C. Brian McGuire Nashville, Tennessee High-Stress Values As a faithful reader of The Progressive and an employee of Outward Bound, I must offer a correction to your report ("Games People Play," No Comment, July issue) that "Outward Bound, which packages dangerous and daring vacations," is working with CIA personnel...
...Military-Industrial Empire, Stockman's book will be listed as a primary source...
...Probably he would again maintain that the press has been used elsewhere to destabilize popular governments...
...We wanted to show what happened: Ordinary people understood Ed's life and felt for him...
...Is she not familiar with the vain attempts of tens of thousands of war-ravaged Europeans to find sponsored U.S...
...To say that the Party has "lost its last freckle of identity, its last eyelash of dignity" is to ignore the fact that 80 per cent of the Democratic members of the House voted against the bill...
...It is difficult to find such articles any more...
...Deborah M. Levy Washington, D.C...
...The suspicion is that the Commission wants to protect the nuclear industry...
...At that stage, the plaintiff said she had no interest in proceeding with the case on the fetal-protection policy, and therefore sought to withdraw and end the litigation...
...After hearing Olin's evidence, the judge upheld the policy...
...Over the past twenty years, the movement among health physicists and epidemiologists has been to advise reduced exposures, and it is likely that studies of the Chernobyl nuclear accident will shed more light on the hazards of low-level radiation...
...How does Levy imagine the Jewish communities in South and Central America arose...
...If the United States is confident in its notions of democracy and capitalism as workable ideologies in Latin America, it should keep its hands off the Nicaraguan government...
...the law did not...
...We can be sure that if a politically imaginative opposition does germinate in Nicaragua, it won't succeed the Sandinistas by electoral means...
...LETTERS to the Editor Bashing the Donkey While the decision of the House of Representatives to provide $100 million in aid to the contras was one of the most dire and damaging votes taken by that body in recent years, your ensuing characterization of the Democratic Party ("The Last Freckle," Comment, August issue) was completely out of line...
...Dan Bessie Shire Films Santa Cruz, California Remembering Sidney Lens The Progressive's late senior editor, Sidney Lens, was a giant in the love, justice, and peace movement, and he will be greatly missed...
...Ed was poor and unknown...
...Raymond Mostek Dupage Audubon Society Wheaton, Illinois The Way of the Sandinistas In Saul Landau's generally thoughtful article, "The Way of the Sandinistas" (August issue), he attributes to the Sandinistas "a vision of a good society that remains unchallenged by any political imagination among their enemies...
...Dealing with the many problems facing us today will require an honest look at the whole truth, which I don't believe The Progressive is really interested in printing...
...If The Progressive is worried about civil liberties, why not consider loss of movement, travel, jobs, and location as the United States and the planet become more densely populated...
...And let us remember that the heavy hand of sanctions on immigration applied not only to the Jews trapped by the Nazis...
...E.F...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...If you really want to help effect political change in the near future, stop the donkey bashing...
...That article had much to do with my opposition to nuclear weapons, which led, in turn, to my extended residence in the Federal prison system...
...People who seek only "nice" images should stick to Time magazine and not concern themselves with the state of the planet...
...I compared today's system of numerically equal quotas for all nationalities with the discriminatory quotas established under pre-1965 law...
...This means the opinion cited by Barnett is not good law, and has been vacated...
...Somehow, there is no space to mention that we are losing our prime farmland to an increasing population...
...First, it was not our intention in the courtroom scenes to provide a surrogate audience for the movie audience to react to...
...My family, victims of the Holocaust, arrived in November 1948...
...These schools do far more than simply offer "dangerous and daring vacations...
...Father Paul Kabat Federal Correctional Institution Sandstone, Minnesota Decline and Fall No one will dispute Daniel Schorr's reading of David Stockman as a compulsive manipulator ("Kick and Tell," Books, July issue...
...The Nuclear Information and Resource Service urges concerned citizens to write to the NRC and to their Congressional delegation about the rule change...
...Perhaps that will help explain why Outward Bound staff members might jump at a chance to conduct a course for CIA personnel...
...Six years of being beaten over the head with shrieking rhetoric, pompous editorials, and pretentious "artwork" is quite enough...
...immigration policies...
...The legal context is somewhat complicated: In the initial round, Olin's policy of excluding women from some potentially harmful jobs was found to be sex discrimination, but the case was sent back to the district court to see whether Olin could prove its policy was a business necessity, which would permit the policy to be implemented even though it was discriminatory...
...Thus, one can predict with absolute certainty that a study made today of U.S...
...Today, as then, the poor pay for what they do, and since Ed went out with a loaded gun, the fact that the killing was virtually accidental was quite immaterial in the eyes of the law...
...Its role in the article was to illustrate that the law posed formidable barriers then, as it does today...
...They provide people like me with an opportunity to impart progressive values...
...I became most aware of Sid Lens through his powerful article "The Doomsday Strategy" (February 1976 issue...
...The effects of radiation on the human body are cumulative and, in most cases, irreversible...
...It was when I discovered a study by Walter Lippmann and Charles Merz of the way The New York Times reported the February and November 1917 revolutions in Russia...
...Yes, tragically, many died...
...The nuclear industry and the Federal Government have been reluctant to release results of studies that point to the dangers of low-level radiation...
...Under the proposed rule, those limits are determined by calculating the risks of fatal cancers and of birth defects through the second generation...
...Recent research indicates that present levels should be reduced by at least a factor of ten...
...Likewise, if Daniel Ortega and his fellow Sandinistas are confident of public backing, they have no excuse for shutting down the one remaining opposition voice in the country...
...In weighing the benefits of radiation against its dangers, the NRC has chosen "acceptable" limits...
...Putting La Prensa out of business cannot be justified as a means of achieving a more just society, nor can it be defended on grounds that the Sandinistas "know" that La Prensa's publishers are "committed to the overthrow of the government...
...John Cole Portland, Maine The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...I was a baby— the child of an American mother, located by her family after long years of childhood in the Soviet Union and trapped by the war...
...I agree with Stellman's observations about the cruelty and discrimination inflicted by the immigration system in days gone by, but she could not have read or understood my article if she can conclude that I have engaged in a "revisionist version" of past immigration policies...
...The ashes of these unwanted lie scattered throughout Europe...
...The deadline for public comment on the proposed rule had been set for September 12, but will probably be extended to mid-October...
...But the American Civil Liberties Union appealed the judge's decision not to drop the case when the plaintiff did not want to litigate it, and the Fourth Circuit ordered the district court to dismiss the case...
...Ron Legro Milwaukee, Wisconsin Hard Traveling We thank critic Michael H. Seitz for the generous space he accorded our film, Hard Traveling (August issue), but we'd like to set straight a few facts...
...Cynthia A. Braun Nuclear Information and Resource Service Washington, D.C...
...I introduced my article with the story of a man who had to resort to threats of suicide with his wife and children to wrench an immigrant visa out of the U.S...
...Still, no matter how much we join the Reaganites in reviling Stockman, we should recognize that his book, The Triumph of Politics, is a unique eyewitness account of the historic process in which the U.S...
...He was also a well-to-do and influential citizen...
...And we were the lucky ones...
...Yes, many went to South and Central America because permission to enter the United States was withheld...
...Yes, hardship struck people other than Jews in Nazi Germany...
...But I was astounded at Deborah Levy's revisionist version of past immigration ("By Invitation Only," August issue...
Vol. 50 • October 1986 • No. 10
