LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS to the Editor Meese Police on Porn Patrol Iwas overjoyed to see the fine article by Bruce Johan-sen ("The Meese Police on Porn Patrol," June issue) covering my problems with the U.S....
...What kind of adult watches porn movies of children...
...What was there, in Hart's words, for the major media "to investigate" about "the use of tear gas in homes and places of worship...
...The Palestinians and their Arab neighbors have created the present political atmosphere by never acknowledging Israel's right to exist, and there will never be any improvement unless its existence is affirmed...
...Men shouldn't be astonished that there are women who are wary of them using feminist wording to express male chauvinism...
...news media" has lacked balance and perspective and has been angled to favor Arab rioters...
...Do you really expect me to believe that this seventy-six-year-old pedophile deserves any consideration whatsoever...
...I like The Progressive and am disappointed by the bias shown in that editorial...
...As I was reading of the Kent State massacre of healthy students engaged in a healthy protest, I was digesting reports of President Reagan's demands for "human-rights" improvements in the Soviet Union...
...Those Arabs not rioting against Israel are entitled to whatever protection Israel can try to provide...
...It was reported by all the major media, especially television...
...Dan VanderKolk Centralia, Washington Iwas fortunate to see Bruce Johansen's article...
...And so must we treat ourselves...
...We must remember that as we would like the workers of the world to be treated, so must we treat our own...
...I wholeheartedly support such efforts as the "sting" operation that stung John McGlynn...
...Ed Doerr of Americans for Religious Liberty, who decried (Letters, July issue) the signatories of an ad identifying abortion as violence, offered a startling barrage of misogynist comments...
...The only kind of socialism that isn't automatically condemned to failure is that advocated by Emma Goldman and her fellow anarchists: unanimous consent without coercion...
...I'll be interested in seeing the letters you receive about this article...
...He deplores "social pressure" not to abort, yet it doesn't occur to him that the "problem" in a problem pregnancy could be caused by male chauvinist pressures, including the negative and insulting attitudes toward pregnancy that he displays...
...People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...
...But canvassing gives many young progressives their first organizing experience...
...Merl C. Lillibridge Waverly, Iowa Editor's Note: The reference to Abu Jihad as "a moderating and conciliatory force" was quoted (with proper attribution) from The New York Times...
...Somers, Connecticut Henrik Drescher's illustrations for "The Meese Police on Porn Patrol" are offensive and add no meaning to the story...
...Kathleen Hart's response (Letters, July issue) to Hyman Richman's complaint about her lack of objectivity in her article, "Israel's Tear-Gas Offensive" (June issue) establishes the prejudice with which she begins...
...Postal Service and U.S...
...In a decade that does not offer the kind of environment for activism that prevailed in the 1960s and 1970s, such opportunities are rare and invaluable...
...I wonder how many of his neighbors with children of their own would shed copious tears for this poor victim...
...These organizations seem to suffer from a classic case of not practicing what they preach...
...Like all exploitive employers, they know there is an abundant supply of eager and naive young people ready to move in for the next round...
...Petersburg, Florida Bruce Johansen's article put me solidly in Attorney General Meese's camp, which is a novel position for me...
...I appreciate Henry Webb's concern, but his conclusions are two years out of date and somewhat misguided...
...a full health plan, and representation through the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union...
...Horrible as the consequences of tear gas may be, the alternatives are much worse and more deadly...
...Canvassers and activists are asked to work long hours doing less-than-pleasant work for pitiful sums of money and an equal dearth of appreciation...
...If the unsavory methods being used by Attorney General Meese's flunkies are not exposed, we can only expect more of the same...
...And there is less fund-raising pressure at SANE/Freeze than at many other canvasses...
...Don Sloan New York, New York Unafraid off the S-Word The fact that Billy Bragg is "unafraid of the S-word" (Datelines, July issue) demonstrates that he fails to understand the unacceptability of any form of socialism...
...Thomas Anessi Southern California SANE/Freeze Los Angeles, California Henry Webb's bitter piece on the death of his daughter in a SANE vehicle brought home the abuses that canvassing organizations and other political groups inflict on their workers...
...They are a form of child pornography themselves...
...I wish Elaine Holstein could have reminded him of an event in American history that reinforces Mikhail Gorbachev's suggestion that the President pay attention to human rights in his own country before he criticizes others...
...Since the subject is a distasteful one which proper people and the dollar-oriented media must suppress, it furnishes an ideal vehicle for unconstitutional bridgeheads against civil liberties...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...His complaints about past policies are justified, but he barely recognizes the fact that sweeping changes instituted almost two years ago have greatly improved passenger safety...
...Staff members must endure late hours, often inclement weather, an apathetic and sometimes hostile public, and low pay...
...Something permanent or terminal would be much more to my liking...
...The result is a population of former activists turned cynics...
...Their attitude is that so long as there is suffering in the world, we too must suffer to make things better...
...Joseph R. DeMasi, M.D...
...But extended abuse only serves to destroy energy and creativity and to alienate those who were originally loyal...
...I know of no suicides among the minors alleged to have been involved in the photographs...
...Give me a break...
...Dean Forbes Seattle, Washington Troubled Canvass Ibelieve Henry T. Webb's article about safety and working conditions within the SANE/Freeze canvass network ("Trouble Beneath the Canvass," The Last Word, April issue) misrepresents the state of the canvass today...
...Harold Weisberg Frederick, Maryland Male Pressures It always amuses me when men feel called upon to lecture women about what we should feel about abortion...
...The objective of this sadistic campaign is not just to "stamp out child porn" but to drive the targeted individuals to mental breakdown or suicide...
...Canvassing for any organization is hard work...
...John G. Swadley, M.D...
...For the past six months, reporting on the Holy Land in the "mainstream U.S...
...Safety policies are more stringent than at most canvasses: All new staff members work across the street from another canvasser, carry flashlights, and are trained in nonviolent self-defense...
...Customs over their zealous pursuit of Attorney General Edwin Meese's "Operation Looking Glass...
...Their enthusiasm and concern about social and political issues are supposed to sustain them through all this...
...So I must ask, "Is anyone actually being protected, or are we merely inflicting irreparable harm on otherwise law-abiding, productive citizens and their families...
...As a psychiatrist, I am aware of at least five suicides among targets of "Operation Looking Glass...
...I don't believe the public would tolerate these practices if the truth were known...
...Anyone who believes that socialism can work should be required to make a careful study of the Cuban economy, comparing pre-Castro with post-Castro...
...The publicity invariably results in a demotion or loss of job, which immediately translates into a severe drop in family income...
...Although staff salaries are low, employee benefits include five and a half weeks of paid time off per year (including vacation, sick leave, and holidays...
...I'm disappointed that The Progressive failed to make the distinction between art to enforce a point and art for the sake of dressing up a few gray pages...
...I was the office manager for the Los Angeles SANE canvass when the accident occurred in which Henry Webb's daughter died, and I lost two dear friends that tragic night...
...There are many examples of wildly bizarre, elaborate hoaxes committed at the expense of unknowing taxpayers and postal patrons...
...Neither the driver nor the vehicle involved in that accident would meet current requirements, and no automobile can be driven after midnight under the new rules...
...Bill Fargo Denver, Colorado The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...The reality, however, is that the burn-out rate among activists is high, though this doesn't seem to bother the organizations themselves...
...Whatever one may think of the continuing state of war against Israel by virtually the entire Muslim world after forty years, Israel does have the obligation to try to maintain order and tranquility in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank...
...Hart's lack of perspective typifies the editorial policies of progressive publications on this complicated and deeply disturbing tragedy...
...John P. McGlynn Omaha, Nebraska Thank you for Bruce Jo-hansen's article about "child-pornography stings...
...Thank Meese and his investigators that they finally caught up with McGlynn...
...That, however, fails to satisfy those who begin with biases...
...Rachel McNair Feminists for Life Kansas City, Missouri Kent State Anniversary Elaine Holstein's "Anniversary" (The Last Word, May issue) may have been your finest hour in my years of reading The Progressive...
...I'm only sorry that more severe penalties were not imposed on McGlynn and others of his persuasion...
...Lesley Reed Lopez, Washington Double-Edged Sword The assassination of the Palestinian terrorist leader Abu Jihad, allegedly by Israeli commandos, could reasonably be condemned in a broad context of disgust with the continuing use of violence instead of negotiations by all nations...
...Doerr is so sure that being unplanned turns a healthy, natural, feminine state of pregnancy into violence...
...The collapse thus observed would clearly demonstrate the fallacy of socialist Utopia...
...I hope you will continue to publicize this issue...
...What disturbed me most, however, was Webb's contention that SANE/Freeze exploits its canvassers...
...Exposure of these clandestine operations is long overdue...
...But your reference to Abu Jihad as a "moderating and conciliatory force" ("Double-Edged Sword," Comment, June issue) is ludicrous when one recalls the mass assassination of Israeli athletes at Munich, the airport massacres, the attempts to destroy Israeli aircraft, and the incessant murderous attacks upon innocent Israelis of all ages...
Vol. 52 • August 1988 • No. 8
