Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor More Questions for Smiley That was a very nice interview with Tavis Smiley (Interview, by Leah Samuel, March issue). I have come to respect his work and vision. In the...
...If I'm a Republican strategist, this "body attachment" felony conviction is a wonderful extension of all the other laws, such as drug laws, that disenfranchise the poor, minorities, and potential Democratic voters...
...Kristi L. Shupp-George Chambersburg, Pennsylvania The letter opposed to Kate Clinton was so absurd that, although I have never done this before, I had to respond...
...Clinton and The L Word keep me sane...
...A. Goodman Memphis, Tennessee Anti-Cuba Bias The one thing that has always appalled me about The Progressive is that it has never given any pro-Cuban or pro-Soviet Union voices a chance to state their position...
...Why not offer them a chance for a rebuttal to Campo...
...he is one who always stands his ground...
...Rafael Campo's article "Thinking in Cuban" (March issue) stayed true to this biased point of view...
...I hope he has the same standards for his own show...
...All letters may be edited fror clarity and conciseness, and may appear either in the magazine or on its web page...
...Keith D. Clemons Sarasota, Florida Missed Opportunity Other than a letter to the editor, the March issue of The Progressive contained no comment on the Democratic Presidential primary race...
...if he doesn't like how heterosexuals come off looking he should do something to better their image...
...Jeffrey Baldwin via e-mail I must say that I truly admire Representative Sanders...
...In the African American community, Smiley is a rising star and a beacon of hope in the world of media...
...I am certain Smiley does not support the anti-unionism and other questionable employee policies of Wal-Mart...
...He is not afraid to say that he is a socialist, and he never backs down from progressive principles...
...Richard Schlosberg Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Bush's IQ The Molly Ivins piece, "Not Bright Enough," in the March issue hits the mark...
...Letters may be e-mailed to: editorial@progressive.org Please include your city and state...
...So you feel a little left out...
...Hank Brock Mobile, Alabama Someone should present an award to Representative Sanders for being among the few individuals in Washington, along with Dennis Kucinich, who is actually fulfilling his duty as an elected official by speaking out boldly on behalf of the people he was elected to represent...
...Please don't stop running her column...
...Carlo Infante Scottsdale, Arizona Targeting the Poor There is an ominous implication of Barbara Ehrenreichs article "Gouging the Poor" (February issue) that she did not discuss...
...I resign myself to carry out the unpleasant task in November of choosing the lesser of two evils, but I await that day when common folks finally become conscious of the power Representative Sanders reminds us that we potentially hold...
...It is very prominent as the show comes on the air...
...If Cuba and the Soviet Union were so terrible and corrupt, why has the United States spent billions of dollars trying to bring them down...
...He is not a shy or weak lawmaker...
...Thank you for a wonderful magazine...
...I realize there are not nearly enough places to get the opinions of straight, white men, but perhaps you can sacrifice a little space to keep this reader...
...I've met hundreds of young adults who share this sentiment...
...As a youth of this nation, I am downright afraid of the direction our country may be heading in the next few decades...
...When I read her articles, I walk away with a comical viewpoint on the sad state of affairs we as a nation face...
...See Letters to the Editor, March issue...
...I had never even heard of The Progressive before I read her book...
...On Smiley's PBS program, I have noticed that one of the sponsors is Wal-Mart...
...My contempt is reserved for people who support him by contributing millions of dollars to his campaign and for those on his staff like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Paul Wolfowitz...
...If one of the chief progressive voices in the nation ignores the deliberate squashing of progressives like Howard Dean (and also the marginalization of Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton) by the media and Democratic Party establishment, with help from the huge corporations that control them both, hope is already dead (apologies to Studs Terkel...
...It is hard for me to feel any sympathy for one who finds her heterophobic...
...I believe that this is how socialism begins...
...She is not a fiction writer...
...While Campo muses about a fantasy of what Cuba might become, he is too emotionally bound to even bring out any of the contributions of the 1959 revolution...
...Brian Gilmore Takoma Park, Maryland Noting your adulatory treatment of Tavis Smiley, I switched him on last night-and witnessed a softball interview of rightwing culture warrior Michael Medved that could have been delivered by any corporate flunky on cable TV...
...Gloria del Vecchio Yardley, Pennsylvania Keep Clinton I enjoy Kate Clinton's work wherever I find it ("Give Me an L," March issue...
...As Sanders said, we all need to start influencing those who still believe that George W Bush is a savior to this nation...
...Welcome to my world...
...In the past, he has always taken companies to task for certain business practices...
...I hope that in the coming years there will be more members of Congress who will do what he has done...
...Even when Medved said that Michael Moore attacked America at the Oscars- when he really attacked Bush-Smiley offered no contradiction...
...Yes, it is true that these societies were fairly autocratic, but when I visited both of them, I found great schools, good hospitals, and no beggars on the streets...
...Leo Sadovy via e-mail Cheers for Sanders First off, I would just like to say three cheers to Bernie Sanders's "We Are the Majority" article in the February issue...
...And it is not Ralph Nader who is the "spoiler," but good people, smart people who choose to say nothing...
...It is bad enough to be surrounded by straight entertainment (of which I do not partake, thanks, anyway), but to have to stomach Will & Grace, Queer Eye, and Queer as Folk...
...After all, she works within her community to better us...
...And where was that question he should have been asked...
...By beating well-funded Democrats and Republicans, he has proven that money cannot always buy votes...
...And it nicely sums up many problems that we Americans face today, despite claims from the President that our country is now moving on the right track...
...It is sad when those who could have been remembered as "the best and the brightest" of their generation have chosen instead to serve a man whose mental capacity is so limited...
...I wish Leah Samuel would have asked Smiley about the use of Wal-Mart as a sponsor...
...If not, what is the deal...
...Give the process a decade or two, and millions of citizens who might vote for health care reform will be barred not only from meaningful participation in the health care debate but from the entire American political process...
...Bush, of course, can't help being who he is...
...I haven't read such a powerful article about America's current state in quite a while...
...Vicki Yannacci Nutley New Jersey The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...It is the water in the drought of my rural existence...
...Kate Clinton may be a lot of things, but to think she's "semi-coherent" or "heterophobic" because of her writings makes me think the letter writer from March might need a translator to read with him...
...now I'm a subscriber and fan of both...
...What were you thinking...
...There are many leftists who are pro-Cuba and pro-Soviet Union...
...I did have one concern that I hoped the interview would have addressed...
Vol. 68 • April 2004 • No. 4
