LETTERS
LETTERS to the Editor I Get It Congrats on the idea of more humor (Editor's Note, April issue). Finally! Don't let those humorless leftists get all of you down. If we can't laugh, what can we...
...But we were quickly put down by publications of the know-it-all "leaders of the left...
...Pediatricians who specialize in treating young people with AIDS strongly agree on the need for these preventive measures...
...Why not to be logical as well...
...I have not been cashiered...
...There you go again: given a choice between the security of a fellow citizen who happens to be a woman and the putative insecurity of her offspring, the adult must be coerced at any expense...
...Take care of yourselves...
...Admittedly, Clinton is not an ideal liberal, but he is the most liberal President we've had for twenty years...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...In the case of a pregnant woman, why must we proceed directly from anonymity to publication, without ever exploring informed consent...
...Harkin gave a few weak (snake-oilish...
...You seem proud of your publication's refusal to "enter the contest" of not criticizing President Clinton for fear of weakening the cause...
...If we can't laugh, what can we do...
...Keep up the good work...
...Is Justice William Bren-nan—who emphasized the First Amendment right to receive information—a "loony...
...Matt Rothschild has bravely urged me to stay...
...But now that it has become so widespread that it can no longer be denied, it gets blamed on the "enemy," thereby further demonizing Iraq (and so justifying future assaults against its people) while conveniently letting the actual perpetrators of this tragedy—the Pentagon—off the hook...
...Reader, pause, and consider the incredible task imposed (on whom, pray tell...
...In this article, the pro-choice position is exposed as a destroyer of both life and liberty: once we dismiss the rights of unborn babies, what stops us from also discarding children with AIDS...
...Initially, Gulf War Syndrome was blamed on the victims, that they were malingering or imagining their symptoms...
...By undermining the enthusiasm and faith people initially had in Clinton's real populism, they also undermined the country's hope for a more liberal government...
...if such a right actually existed— and then read the Constitution, and breathe a sigh of relief that no such impossible "right" was even imagined by the founders...
...How else do you fight censorship unless you claim a First Amendment right to receive information and expression...
...Richard L. Grossman Provincetown, Massachusetts The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...your criticism of him was often indistinguishable from theirs...
...Amy Mathis Clinton, North Carolina I think I liked Nat Hentoff I better as a jazz critic...
...Your pessimism about Clinton's policies was exceeded only by that of the far right...
...As for Robert Sommer, how can you have "informed consent" to life-saving measures unless you are first informed whether you and/or your child are HIV-infected...
...You might think, from this article, that it was a simple matter of treating the infant and preventing a disease...
...we made it through the Red Scares and the McCarthy period____" Allow me to echo Tonto's sharp query to the Lone Ranger: "What do you mean we, Kemo Sabe...
...Diana Chapman, M.ZX Oroville, California Leave Jesse Alone Adolph Reed's columns on Jesse Jackson ("Lessons of November," February issue, and "Jesse's Snake Oil," April issue) amount to the old neoliberal, mainstream-media critique of Jackson...
...Hopefully any new editor of The Progressive will take a long hard look at Hentoff's continuing waste of space...
...And this is even before we consider any civil-liberties aspects of the case...
...shell casings, and the inoculation of the troops with massive and repeated doses of experimental "anti-chemical weapons" drugs, the specific identities of which still have not been revealed...
...Nat Hentoff New York, New York Check the Shells While I do not dispute the existence and seriousness of "Gulf War Syndrome" ("The Gulf War Comes Home," by Dennis Bernstein and Thea Kelley, March issue), I cannot agree that it is caused by Iraqi chemical or biological weapons, as Pentagon records now imply...
...Moreover, there is no question that HIV-infected infants need not develop AIDS if they're treated early enough...
...Can anyone name one Presidential candidate without "personal ambition...
...He has "no interest in building a movement," Reed says...
...However, if their parents and attending physicians do not know they are infected, these children will be hit sooner rather than later with catastrophic illnesses because their immune systems will have been gravely weakened...
...We were told repeatedly in your editorials and columns that Clinton was too middle-of-the-road, too inclined to compromise, too reactionary for the left to support...
...This is my last dialogue with readers of The Progressive...
...We did begin "to stir, to clamor, to agitate"— clearly evident at his town meetings...
...As always, Nat Hentoff provides food for thought as he walks the delicate line between defending life and liberty ("Censoring the Right to Live," February issue...
...Such weapons kill, kill horribly, and kill almost instantaneously...
...troops to Iraqi chemical-weapons attack is a typical and transparent disinformation campaign...
...By helping to render Clinton's Administration ineffective while offering no viable alternative—even after twelve years of Reagan and Bush— the left created a void that was readily filled by the far right...
...The newly declassified Pentagon records purporting to document exposure of U.S...
...Stewart MacMillan Guffm Bay, New York Shame...
...You encourage readers to be Utopian, to dream...
...But Reed doesn't tell us which of his favorite liberal Democrats have such an interest...
...Thomas Marzahl Grand Forks, North Dakota Who's Loony...
...Not so in April, apparently because Harkin voted for the Balanced Budget Amendment...
...Robert C. Sommer New York, New York The author replies: There is a test that quickly differentiates the three-quarters of the infants who falsely test positive for HIV from the 25 percent who are indeed infected...
...But I think readers like Scott and Sommer are entitled to a more predictable, more orthodox columnist...
...We've turned into a society of abusers—and in the name of women's rights...
...Blanche Jantzen Bartelso, Illinois Reflecting on an era of Congressional witch hunts, judicial persecutions, subverted institutions, ruined lives, shattered families, blasted hopes, deportations, and flights to sanctuary abroad, I read with incredulity Matthew Rothschild's glib editorial comment that...
...A. C. Hall Dallas, Texas The first six-and-a-half paragraphs of your April Editor's Note are clear, apt, elegant and exciting...
...reasons for his vote, but omitted the most obvious—he's up for re-election in 1996...
...Shame, Shame e optimism expressed in Beyond the Gloom" ("Editor's Note," March issue) is not only naive, it is also incongruous and inconsistent with the stand taken by The Progressive...
...Careful readers, however, will have noted that for every infant thus treated, three will have been exposed for no reason to all the hazards of the "cure...
...I wonder, though, when you come to what the left should do, why limit yourself to a shorter workweek at higher pay, and guaranteed jobs/income...
...The most likely cause of Gulf War Syndrome is a severely damaged immune system resulting from exposure to wind-borne fallout from the U.S...
...My growing feeling that Hentoff is a senile old loony is buttressed by his remarkable closing paragraph, wherein he invents a "First Amendment right—to receive information...
...If we were Utopian and logical, we would seek to end corporate rule, and strive to govern ourselves...
...Might not be too far from the truth, in some areas...
...After admitting that a full three-quarters of HIV positive infants don't, in fact, have the disease, he goes on to demand that the full force of "health care" and "law" be impressed on their errant mothers...
...In fact, The Progressive, along with most of the leftwing press, offered nothing but a pervasive, relentless, destructive criticism, much of it unjustified, of every policy he tried to implement...
...Instead of taking pride in your participation in destroying Clinton's effectiveness you ought to be ashamed of helping to bring about the horrors of the Newt Gingrich regime now in power...
...So he has "personal ambitions...
...His latest Progressive column is a textbook example of rogue medicine administered by amateurs...
...Many—by no means all—readers of this magazine are akin to the Christian Right in their unwillingness, or inability, to think beyond comfortable stereotypes...
...All we need to complete this gruesome picture of medical malpractice is the knowledge that there is no certain cure, and that the remedies proposed are actually toxic drugs that should not be taken for no good reason...
...Many of us (the people) were optimistic during Clinton's campaign and at his election...
...Terry Scott Seattle, Washington Nat Hentoff...
...The bottom line is that three out of four infants in this picture will suffer more harm if Hentoff's cure is adopted, and eventually his proposal will join the long list of medical ideas that, on the balance, have caused more harm than good...
...As a pro-life feminist, I believe that putting women's right to privacy over the lives and health of our children is one of the worst kinds of oppression...
...bombing of Iraqi nuclear facilities, the use of "depleted" uranium in U.S...
...Had Iraq used the chemical weapons it was known to have had, the resulting enormous and widespread American casualties would have been impossible to hide...
...Therefore, the 75 percent are not exposed to any treatment for this at all...
...As a test of Reed's credibility in picking real good white Presidential progressives, it's interesting to note that his short list in February included Tom Harkin...
...Also, Feldman's column is circulating around our office, and I have faxed copies to a few friends...
...I've seen Will Durst's stuff in The Nose, and reprinted in Utne, and he really is a hoot...
...Thank you...
...Iraq, at the time of the Gulf War, was known to possess sophisticated and deadly chemical weapons...
...I think Reed succumbed to a personal dislike of Jackson and couldn't resist adding it where it didn't belong...
...Moreover, he is the only realistic alternative as yet to a Robert Dole or Phil Gramm in 1996...
Vol. 59 • May 1995 • No. 5
