Letters
Letters to the Editor Cheney Worse Than a Shark Will Durst's comments on Dick Cheney are right on the mark (August issue), except for one thing. The piece insults sharks. How could anyone compare...
...investigation of Corrie's death...
...And surely, the suspicious death of Rachel Corrie is relevant to Ascher-man's near-death experience...
...And I'm outraged that Schmitt could make such an ignorant statement about our wonderful wildlife and the efficacy of poetry...
...It is long overdue...
...Cynthia L. Bryant Pleasanton, California October Surprise...
...Chuck Morrison New Castle, Pennsylvania Ehrenreich's Overclass Although a fan of Barbara Ehrenreich, I take issue with her statement, "If we don't end up with universal health insurance in the next few years, it won't be because the average American isn't pining for relief from escalating medical costs...
...Any time you talk about health care and you indulge the word "insurance," it's a political plus to the pitiless middlemen...
...In fact, I don't think I have felt such outrage in my seventy-two years to equal that which I experienced while reading the article, especially when I came upon the words of the county Republican leader Peter Schmitt, who said he wished the Democrats would "spend as much time worrying about the deficit as they spend on things like birds and poet laureates...
...Most of all I am upset because, as a pentagram-wearer myself, you are putting me in the same class as Dick Cheney, and that is disturbing and unacceptable...
...A devoted fan of The Progressive and my Wicca faith, Jamie Amato Via e-mail Impeach Cheney Thank you, thank you, thank you for your call for Dick Cheney's impeachment in the August "Comment...
...I am hoping to see a retraction of the artwork in your next issue...
...And the graphic illustration by Earl Holloway, with Ascherman standing in front of a huge bulldozer, caught my attention...
...We can easily do without either...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness, and may appear either in the magazine or on its web page...
...Letters may be e-mailed to: editorial@progressive.org...
...Only Representative Dennis Kucinich has the integrity and foresight to promote a single-payer plan, sans the private insurance, that is both realistic and humane...
...As a Pagan, witch, and Wicca practitioner, I was very upset at the picture of Cheney with a pentagram on his chest and devil horns...
...It would help if the media would keep a record of his broken promises and ask him about them at press conferences...
...Also, the Devil is a creation of the Christian faith and stands opposite of Jesus...
...Although it is a great honor to be named the Poet Laureate of your town, county, state, or country, I have always felt the main purpose is to bring poetry/poets to the people that we serve...
...It's almost like all he has to do is make some promise, and everybody thinks it's actually been done...
...will conveniently happen just prior to the election...
...Please do not do this...
...See "The Bloated Overclass," August issue...
...With no intent to lessen Rabbi Ascherman's courage and Judaic correctness in resisting far right Israelis and their ethnic cleansing of the occupied Palestinian territories, I wonder whether The Progressive might also consider why so few in Congress seem willing to demand an independent U.S...
...I love The Progressive, but was very surprised and upset when I reached Will Durst's article, "Shark with Glasses...
...I was pleased to see Robert Hirschfield's essay on U.S.-born Rabbi Arik Ascherman ("Israeli Rabbi Defends Palestinians," July issue...
...How could anyone compare an avaricious and vile soul like Dick Cheney to any of the wonderful shark species that inhabit the world's oceans...
...William R. Lamppa Embarrass, Minnesota Concerning Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bloated Overclass," I have always subscribed to the fertilizer theory of money: When the available money in a society is allowed to pile up and be concentrated in one place among only that society's few, it tends, like fertilizer, to stink and may eventually explode...
...When it is spread out as widely as possible across all elements of that society, it, like fertilizer, will make the flowers of society grow...
...The majority of Americans naively assume that the forthcoming election will change things...
...Dana Franchitto South Wellfleet, Massachusetts Yesterday, I received my August issue of The Progressive and started reading it immediately...
...You have once again set yourself apart from all others...
...I do have a problem with people rejecting an honoree because his poetry tells the truth, whereas the President and Vice President of this once great country lie and still remain the symbols of our country to the world...
...Rachel Corrie gave her life doing the identical courageous activity that The Progressive now honors Rabbi Ascher-man for...
...Pagans do not believe in the Devil...
...Schmitt has Bush and the Republicans to blame for the deficit, as the Iraq War bill is climbing into the trillions...
...We practitioners of the Pagan faith are proud of our pentagram...
...However, it is likely that the next big terrorist attack in the U.S...
...Also, please keep in mind, most sharks kill only when they are hungry...
...The amazing thing is the American people don't hold him accountable...
...I will circulate this month's offering widely and often...
...Knee-jerk references to universal health insurance (emphasis on insurance) resemble knee-jerk references to God by so many political flim-flammers (especially our pathetic President...
...Readers should also ponder if she was the victim of an intentional murder...
...Keith Campbell 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...
...Martin R. Haase Chester, Nova Scotia Bush's Broken Promises In the August 2007 "Editor's Note," Matthew Rothschild writes of hearing President Bush's "vow to offer federal land free to those who had become homeless...
...Please include your city and state...
...David Eugene Blank Louisville, Kentucky Poets Sound Off The August issue featured an article by Matthew Rothschild, "Poet Loses Laurel," which I read with increasing anger at the treatment of eighty-year-old poet Maxwell Corydon Wheat...
...Bush has vowed to do this or that in almost every speech he has made, and he never follows up...
...Your September Comment, "Watch Those Executive Orders," spells out chillingly how the Bush Administration is steadily, and without much media coverage, putting dictatorial power in the hands of the President...
...Please continue the great job of reporting you are doing...
...It wasn't the article that upset me, but the picture with it...
...I hope The Progressive takes the opportunity to remind its readers that Ascherman is not alone in resisting Israeli outrages in the Occupied Territories...
...Tom Crosby Tallahassee, Florida Ever Hear of Rachel Corrie...
...It should remind you and your readers that an American volunteer who monitored Israel's nasty and illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, twenty-three-year-old Rachel Corrie, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza on March 16, 2003...
...I am so pleased to finally see some media calling for this man's impeachment...
...We do not sacrifice small children or harm living creatures...
...Diane M. Moore Sewanee, Tennessee I am writing you as the Poet Laureate Emerita of Pleasanton, California, 2005-2007...
...I am particularly happy it was in The Progressive magazine...
...It represents the five elements of our Earth based on natural belief and faith...
...Bush could then declare a national emergency and suspend elections until "the war on terrorism is won...
Vol. 71 • October 2007 • No. 10
