Letters to the Editor

...I personally am a democratic socialist by conviction as well as a believer in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior...

...Letters may be e-mailed to: editorial@progressive.org Please include your city and state...

...Everyone knows where labor stands on this subject...

...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness, and may appear either in the magazine or on its web page...

...It is a powerful image, and it will stick in my mind for some time...

...Congress must not let him continue down this catastrophic path...

...I am sure there are many more who read your magazine who share my convictions...

...Congress is also duty-bound to investigate how this war started, and whether, as the evidence seems to indicate, we were lied to by the Bush-Cheney Administration...

...Walter Rauschenbusch, Norman Thomas, Clarence Jordan, Martin Luther King Jr., and Charles Finney are examples of people who fought for progressive ideas on behalf of the poor and marginalized and who also believed in God...

...Alexander Ingham Morganville, New Jersey Art as Loud as Words I am a new subscriber...

...If magazines like yours don't use your forum to seriously cover candidates whose popularity is not wide enough already, we'll never get there...

...Once again, I feel betrayed by the "progressive" media...

...I am very pleased that a magazine such as The Progressive is published and I have gotten much out of your articles...

...Can someone tell me why a magazine entitled The Progressive would dismiss with contempt (albeit humorous contempt) a guy like Kucinich, whose progressive bona fides are pretty much beyond reproach and have stood the test of time...

...All of the other big names, such as Clinton, are merely corporate shills and panderers to Big Oil, Big Pharma, and the Israeli lobby...

...Durst is no Molly Ivins...

...Believe me, no one has more antipathy toward Wal-Mart than I. Yet it is a simple fact that the health care debate will remain stagnant until corporate interests demand a change...

...Will Lyman Boston, Massachusetts Believers Keep Out...

...Their faces show closed and lonely expressions...

...But Will Durst sees fit to mention three times that Representative Kucinich has no chance, even though the election is a year and a half away ("Scouting Report," April issue...

...And should we get a Clinton or an Obama or an Edwards as the Democratic candidate, I hope I'll get the chance to vote for Ralph Nader again...

...No truly progressive candidate will...

...Want out of Iraq...

...In Luis J. Rodr?guez's column, "Black-Brown Unity Now," the illustration shows two men with guns pointed at the reader's head...

...The Better Health Care Together coalition got press precisely because its organizers did something new...

...Serafino Bueti Winsted, Connecticut As soon as I read Will Durst's piece, I had to sit down and write you...

...So he sees it as in his interest to prolong the war, send more troops, resist calls for withdrawal, and tell us that ending the fighting will be up to the next Administration...

...by Howard Zinn, May issue...

...We need a single-payer system, with no role for the insurance companies...

...Eriberto (Eddie) Soto via e-mail At the doors of the May issue, before the usual articles on civil liberties, Iraq, and ecology, stands a full page advertisement for a book entitled Losing Faith in Faith, promoted by the Freedom from Religion Foundation...

...Are you sure this is the sort of image that you want your readers to carry with them into a world that needs openness, connection, and cooperation...

...They want this coalition of the ignorant and the arrogant out of our White House as soon as possible...

...Philip E. Devine Providence, Rhode Island Single-Payer System Here is a good reason that the AFL-CIO's announcement supporting a single-payer health care system did not receive media coverage: It wasn't news ("Labor Offers Business Health Care Cures," by Barbara Miner, May issue...

...It is, to quote Fein-gold, "up to Congress to act...

...Democracy means not rule by people like oneself, but paying attention to the beliefs and desires of ordinary citizens...

...My job is simply to say out loud what I know to be the truth: We are doing a bad thing in Iraq, and we need to stop right away...

...Our own media is doing it for them...

...He should stay home, watch the Red Sox, and retire his typewriter...

...A guy like Kucinich will never match the megabucks that others get by stroking corporate interests...

...Yet, I have been somewhat dismayed because the last two issues of your magazine (April and May) have had a full page advertisement announcing atheism...

...Credit should go to Stern and his allies for making a convincing enough case to a group of powerful corporate executives that it is in their interest to pressure our lawmakers...

...I have a great sense of humor, but I have become increasingly frustrated with the way folks like Kucinich and Nader have been treated by the left media...

...Marjorie Smith Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania Thank You, Howard Thank you, Howard, for reminding me that I am not a politician, I am a citizen ("Are We Politicians or Citizens...

...Kucinich is a long shot, but by dismissing him so completely, you help convince people who might agree with his proposals to not even look at him, let alone vote for him...

...The American people have made their decision clear...

...I believe that dim as he may be, the President senses that once the war is over, the pressure for regime change in Washington will be overwhelming...

...My vote is too precious to me to give to second best...

...So far, so good, after three months...

...And if so, Congress should add that to an already strong case for impeachment...

...It is easy to criticize Andy Stern for breathing the same oxygen as Wal-Mart's Lee Scott...

...Want universal health care...

...This is the last thing The Progressive, for all its populist rhetoric, is willing or able to do...

...Letters to the Editor Thank You, Russ Thank you to The Progressive for reprinting Senator Russ Feingold's statement on Congress's duty to pursue an end to the Iraq War ("The People Are Sovereign," April issue...

...You call yourselves The Progressive...

...Instead of taking potshots from the sidelines, the left should be doing all it can to support the progressive elements of the coalition to hold firm on a single-payer model...

...Some 90 percent of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit, and a large majority of us accept some sort of scriptural authority...

...I'm checking out The Progressive to discover whether you include in your articles a level of hope, good sense, and compassion that I am trying to gather around myself for inspiration...

...You are guaranteeing that the only real progressive candidate currently in the field won't even make it out of the gate...

...I have found a number of progressive secularists who are also...

...Katy Rose Hanalei, Hawaii Support Kucinich There is one truly progressive candidate running for President in '08- Dennis Kucinich...

...In April, though, there was something I would have liked to have seen done differently...

...Apparently we don't need the Republicans or the corporate Democrats to defeat a progressive agenda...

...In other words, believers keep out...

...Susan Hammond North Syracuse, New York The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...

...One more piece of nonsense like Durst's and my next correspondence will be to cancel my subscription...

...I hope you publish this brief message...

...Give me a break...

...With that attitude, we may as well give Clinton the nomination...

...Kucinich is your man...

...The impression you give is that only atheists are progressives and religious-minded people are not...

...Please have the courage to point that out...

...People of faith are not the only ones that have biased members...