LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS to the Editor Readers Comment on 'Phony War on Drugs' The Progressive's proposal for "decriminalizing" drugs ("Phony War on Drugs," Comment, October issue) seems very unpromising as a...
...Winpisinger is absolutely right when he says people don't vote because they don't see an alternative...
...Was there any CIA involvement in the Chinese students' "democracy" movement...
...And this certainly holds true for our involvement in Bolivia...
...The ineffectiveness of Chinese intellectuals may offer a thought-provoking lesson to Americans...
...As you point out, the drug war is a lie and the media are helping to spread it...
...Jean C. Musick Colorado Springs, Colorado How come Daniel Ellsberg never mentioned the part the United Nations might play in the quest for peace...
...Who really profits from the coffee trade...
...For two years, CI has been working with a variety of national and international institutions to ensure that all these issues are addressed in the larger context of sustainable development...
...Let's start getting our priorities straight...
...We assist partner institutions to obtain and build up their capacities to do conservation and further their development...
...Or would you turn controlled distribution of drugs over to the Federal Government—to those same wonderful folks who brought us HUD and S&L regulation...
...If there ever was a city of contradictions, Richmond is it...
...Tarbet Richmond, Virginia Praise The Progressive and pass the common sense...
...Or would drugs be distributed by prescription, limiting drug access by age and certified need, thereby creating an impetus for an alternative market...
...Our role has never included supervising timber-cutting, nor was CI involved in reforestation or tree-planting in the area...
...While such a program might result in lower expenditures for police work and prisons, it neglects a number of other important costs...
...The Superfortresses, loaded with incendiary and oil-filled bombs, had begun a prolonged and merciless assault on Japanese cities...
...However, if progressive organizations won't support the type of Democratic candidate Win-pisinger wants to recruit (like me), we will continue to be defeated not only by "Democrats with Republican spots" but by our own progressive elements...
...This was, in fact, a major reason CI collaborated with our in-country partners for the conservation agreement in the first place...
...Yet, because these killers bear the legal and social blessing, these death tolls never get the headlines or TV time devoted to the illegal-drug havoc...
...So is the question of Indian participation and decisions made about their territories and resource use...
...Would the "decriminalized" market follow the tobacco model, with U.S...
...Drug deaths have their counterpart in the lung cancer and heart failure attributed to cigarettes, which are also the chief cause of death by fire...
...Fisher Missoula, Montana Nazis in the Northwest The article headed "Citizens Organize Against Nazis," by Anna Sochocky and Catherine Siegner (Datelines, August issue), will leave uninformed readers with the impression that the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations has done nothing to combat racism in Idaho...
...Jeff Topping Mesa, Arizona The Victim and the Pilot Greg Mitchell's "The Victim and the Pilot" (August issue) provided a welcome opportunity to consider U.S...
...We are so self-absorbed...
...You suggest a system of "low-cost (or free) distribution to addicts...
...Why did the price of coffee fall so drastically...
...corporations advertising and distributing the drugs...
...I agree...
...Living in the quintessential city of Southern conservatism and good-ole-boy politics, we're Aip to our eyeballs in the Big Lie...
...The interview with Ellsberg is one of the finest articles I've read on any subject in any magazine...
...As you hint, reducing drug use probably involves convincing people that forbearance and voluntary simplicity are ultimately more satisfying than a perpetual quest for immediate gratification, but you share with President Bush an inability or unwillingness to propose a specific program that will bring about such a change in national character...
...As The Progressive states, "Our culture perpetuates the traditional trappings of religion, spirituality, selflessness, idealism—but in practice it emphasizes self-gratification and the quick fix...
...But the drug-related killings, ghastly as they are, pale in numerical comparison to the 50,000 or so annual highway deaths directly related to the legal drug, alcohol...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...Norman L. Gissel Kootenai County Task Force Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Parting Shot William Winpisinger's "Parting Shot" at the Democratic Party (July issue) is 100 per cent on target...
...Joseph Wetmore Alma, Nebraska Bull in the China Shop In The Progressive's editorial on recent events in China ("Bull in the China Shop," Comment, August issue), you repeated the buzz words our State Department used and the phrases printed by our mass media from coast to coast...
...The number of people injured, burned, maimed, crippled, and mutilated is incalculable...
...W.H...
...At Pearl Harbor, 2,403 servicemen were killed, almost half of them when the Arizona blew up...
...The United States committed acts of barbarism against the innocent men, women, and children of Japan...
...I, on the other hand, believe in and proclaim the old Democratic ideals Winpisin-ger cherishes...
...But the "friendly incumbent" rule does precisely the same thing by swapping a couple of pro-labor votes for the whole Republican agenda...
...But isn't that where the answer lies...
...And in the United States, our youth ministry programs are all about helping kids stay off drugs, out of bed, away from suicide...
...It violated every canon of justice and humanity...
...The atomic incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was merely the coup de grace...
...However, I don't want to be picky...
...The total number of Japanese civilians killed by atomic and conventional air raids was 672,000...
...Your proposal seems to be little more than advocacy of a program guaranteeing that a national drug habit becomes as deeply embedded in our society as the political and economic order you decry...
...Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, and many other cities had been reduced to rubble and ashes...
...Put it in charge of drug clinics in the inner cities...
...Here are some important facts that were not reported: H Idaho has the toughest hate-crime statutes in the United States, and they have been effectively enforced...
...We Can End the Arms Race The interview with Daniel Ellsberg ("We Can End the Arms Race," September issue) and the accompanying articles present a picture of our society and Government that is as terrifying as it is enlightening...
...However, the labor movement itself is not without guilt for perpetuating the problem of "Republicrats...
...The free-enterprise system, so we could duplicate our experience with RJR, Philip Morris, Coors, and those other purveyors of legal poisons for profit...
...Starting in November 1944, U.S...
...Paul Tibbetts, who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, shows no compunction for having been a participant in one of history's most appalling atrocities...
...There are not enough good, viable, aggressive civil-rights organizations in the United States for reporters in a national magazine to trash those that do exist...
...war crimes against the home islands of Japan during World War II...
...Greed and abuse of power by the multinationals, the global financial community, and governments of the developed nations have impoverished billions of people...
...Winpisinger says the Democrats promote "a few cosmetic liberal reforms to provide temporary solutions to old grievances and problems, but do nothing to restructure and change the fundamental causes which created the problems...
...The odds heavily favor an incumbent's re-election, and these interest groups admitted they did not want to be on the wrong side of the likely winner...
...Long before the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was a defeated nation...
...I don't have an easy answer...
...A few critical issues must be addressed specifically: 11 At the request of the Bolivian government, CI has been assisting the Beni Forest Service by working through local groups to provide technical advice in forestry, ecology, planning, and organizational development...
...1,143 were injured or wounded...
...Or would domestic farmers be encouraged to grow drug crops to avoid balance-of-payment problems, ultimately leading to the same kind of subsidies that tobacco farmers now enjoy...
...The future of the Chi-mana forest is a critical issue for Bolivia...
...Evidently, George Bush is just as set as Ronald Reagan was on having a war in Central America...
...I mean, maybe if our teens were working to build a better world, drugs and sex and the despair that leads to suicide wouldn't be such a big problem...
...T.W...
...Our commitment to these efforts remains unabated...
...Third World farmers would, presumably, still be supplying the "decriminalized" drugs, growing coca instead of food crops...
...This observation is false...
...We are co-sponsors of a leadership retreat on racism for local high-school students...
...This legislation was passed through the efforts of the Kootenai County Task Force and other good people of Idaho...
...The Kansas affiliate of the National Education Association actually endorsed my opponent, and even the Sierra Club declined to endorse me though I had been an environmental lobbyist for five years...
...11 CI has never "lined up with lumber companies in opposing the Indians' demands for a single integrated territory...
...That is by nature a slow process (especially in developing countries where foreign institutions cannot impose a faster pace...
...I think you'll find that U.S...
...He said, "I feel sorry for Takahashi and the others who got burned up down there at Hiroshima, but I feel sorry for those who died at Pearl Harbor, too...
...Jerry Flemming Salem, Oregon Thank you for your on-target remarks in "Phony War on Drugs...
...A demonstration that started out peacefully turned violent, with soldiers killed and injured...
...Norman Siler Kenosha, Wisconsin The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...Stevi Stephens Tonganoxie, Kansas Death of a Small Country Michael I. Niman's "Death of a Small Country" (August issue) deserves a small footnote: The U.S...
...Readers who would like to know more about the Vietnam-era "Roads for Peace" project should check out Summons of the Trumpet by Colonel Dave Richard Palmer...
...John McCormally Burlington, Iowa Isupport every point you made in "Phony War on Drugs," but you should go on to explain why there is so much pressure on South American countries to engage in illegal trade, be it drugs, gold, gems, tropical timber, or endangered species...
...Even if they were given without charge to the users, someone would be paid for producing or distributing them...
...But when the voters are offered a democratic alternative, labor and other progressive organizations should be conspicuously on the bandwagon—not supporting "friendly incumbents" who just offer more of the same...
...Army Corps of Engineers "Roads for Peace" unit operating in Costa Rica is, in all likelihood, the same "Roads for Peace" unit that was active in South Vietnam before the United States was officially involved in the war there...
...They'd like us to think it's because of drugs, but I've never seen a place with so much glorification of the acquisition of things (and money, of course) as a measure of success...
...One example: Last year, the price of coffee on the global market dropped by half, pushing Colombian coffee growers into engaging in or supporting the illegal traffic in drugs in order to survive...
...But labor failed to support me because my Republican opponent was a "friendly incumbent...
...It is worth reading by every American who is concerned with stopping the mad race toward catastrophe...
...Philip J. Chamberlain Lansing, Michigan Iagree with The Progressive's condemnation of the phony war on drugs, but can't buy your proposal for legalization, or decriminalization, as you call it...
...Was it because his interviewers didn't ask him to comment on the United Nations, or was it because he himself thinks there's little or no hope for the world organization...
...I accept and welcome Ellsberg's optimism about the possibility of attaining world stability and peaceful coexistence between the United States and the Soviet Union, but I am baffled as to how this can be brought about, given the overwhelming control exercised by the Pentagon and its supporters...
...The youth, lacking good role models, are just saying no to hamburger-flipping jobs and yes to more lucrative illegal trades...
...I hope Gorbachev will be strong enough to withstand the pressures from his own military and party zealots...
...George E. Delaney Chelsea, Massachusetts Bolivia's Forests Serious inaccuracies in Merrill Collett's "Debt Deal Stacked Against Indians" (Datelines, August issue) distort Conservation International's work and oversimplify the complexities involved in natural-resource planning in developing countries...
...You stress, as legalizers always do, the need to bring an end to bloody gangsterism...
...So who would you have in charge...
...It has become a cliche to say education and treatment, but we haven't even seriously tried them...
...11 We have held demonstrations and sponsored symposiums attended by nationally prominent civil-rights leaders...
...B-29s based in the Marianas had carried the air war to Japan...
...My daughter Mariann, a lay Catholic educator, writes from Bolivia, where she works among poor farmers and Guarani Indians, about helping instruct young people: "These teens are learning that part of their vocation as a baptized lay person is to promote the common good and defend the inalienable human rights of all, including the weakest and most needy, to build peace and freedom, justice and brotherhood...
...11 Members of the Task Force have spoken throughout the Northwest about the threat posed by neo-Nazis and other racists...
...Bernard Forer Sarasota, Florida Annelise Riles describes the contemporary reincarnation of factionalism that has beset the Chinese civilization for millennia ("The Chinese Student Movement Moves to America," September issue...
...Why don't Latin coffee-growers process and market their own coffee beans...
...The uniformed service that should be vastly expanded and superbly trained for the "drug war" is the Public Health Service...
...Chinese intellectuals have sought to attain status and material rewards by acquiring extensive education, leaving the pursuit of power, by default, to the warlords...
...and multinational corporations have exploited the Latin nations to the point where few people—even in tne elite—can earn an honest living...
...Usually, there isn't any...
...Would our Government have acted differently under martial law...
...Your magazine is a voice of sanity in the Tower of Babel that we call the news media...
...Maria Teresa Ortiz Conservation International Washington, D.C...
...H Despite Collett's implications, CI was highly concerned about the environmental impact of lumber concessions granted by the Bolivian government before our debt-for-nature swap agreement...
...The real democrats—those with a small d—can't afford to lose labor, teachers, environmentalists, etc., to "friendly incumbents" who do not support our interests...
...What is obvious to those with open eyes is hidden by the fear that grips this society...
...The reasons people turn to drugs are a much larger problem than the drugs themselves...
...I agree with Ellsberg that Mikhail Gorbachev is our best hope for progress at this time...
...LETTERS to the Editor Readers Comment on 'Phony War on Drugs' The Progressive's proposal for "decriminalizing" drugs ("Phony War on Drugs," Comment, October issue) seems very unpromising as a response to drug problems in the United States...
...Japan had been bombed out of the war...
...However pious the intent to steer addicts toward abstinence, you can bet the drug industry would be promoting day and night to create new customers...
...CI has always worked to balance the rights and needs of indigenous people with the preservation of ecosystems and sustainable resources...
...More than 500,000 civilians had been killed, countless homes had been obliterated, and thirteen million were made homeless...
...Pearl Harbor had now been savagely avenged...
...Of course, this liberation-theology message from Bolivia—more powerful than the coca leaves from there-would threaten revolution here, as it does there...
...11 Through the Task Force's leadership, assistance, and example, numerous civil-rights task forces have been created throughout the Northwest...
...And statements in the article that I "was reported to say," I simply never did...
...There's no such thing as free drugs...
...sixty-five civilians were killed, and thirty-five were wounded...
...Today's warlords are the leaders of the People's Liberation Army...
...Last year, I ran for a senate seat in Kansas against a twenty-six-year Republican incumbemt—the type who consistently votes to reduce taxes on the rich by increasing taxes on working people...
...With a greater-area population of 600,000-plus and the moneyed fleeing to the relative safety of the surrounding counties, Richmond boasts the third-highest murder rate in the United States...
Vol. 53 • November 1989 • No. 11
