Keep that poison off our bush, Bush!

RE: “Drug Control or Biowarfare?“

05/05/00

The use of this toxic fungus was barely stopped here in Florida. Many of us believe that this fungus destroys all types of nut-bearing trees and bushes and all types of tuber-forming crops; we have notified “Guv J.E.B.” that we will revolt against any attempts to use this poison here.

Bob Doyle

Please send this to every member of Congress and every state enviromental department. Maybe it will generate enough heat to get “Dr.” Sands to test the safety of this fungus in his home state of Montana!

Bob Walters
Scottsdale, Az.

Déjà vu, only worse

RE: “Drug Control or Biowarfare?“

05/04/00

I remember attending a conference in Guatemala in 1987 on the troubles they were having with glyfosato (glyphosate or Roundup) as an herbicide. I was appalled at the reports of crop and livestock damage it caused. This new report on the possible use of a mycoherbicide in Colombia shows even more astounding potential for stupidity by governments and businesses in overlooking possible side effects. It makes my skin crawl. Thanks for the report.

Babette Grunow
Milwaukee, Wis.

Sounds as though the State Department is up to the same old shit it knows so well. The fact remains that no matter how successful they are in eradicating coca in Columbia, it will be supplied from another region of the world. The war on drugs is and always has been a failed attempt. Given the harm to the people of these areas caused by drug-crop eradication efforts, and the environmental damage such policies could cause, it makes no sense to continue.

Chris Magda
Cape Coral, Fla.

I am a Colombian who grew up seeing the devastation of land by the use of DDT and other herbicides and pesticides promoted as safe for humans, animals, and plants. I grew up in an area where subsistence farming was a way of life for at least three hundred years. Pesticides were introduced there, after the “Alianza para el Progreso” was signed, to fight pests on corn, beans, and tomato plantations. Immediately afterward, the avocado trees started to wither and rot. In a few years, trees that had been a source of food from the time of the Chibcha’s disappeared. With the avocado trees went a great number of animal species.

There was no scientific data to back up our suspicions of the correlation between the use of pesticides and the disappearance of the avocado trees. Headaches were blamed on the brightness of the sun, and sicknesses of the reproductive system, such as cysts and birth defects, were attributed to the will of God.

That is why the effort to bring light to this issue is so crucial.

Ana Zambrano

Commander Elian

RE: “Elian FAQ“

05/04/00

Elian will most likely be raised by Castro himself after all this notoriety, and told in gilded exaggeration how badly the ugly Americans treated him. If we think Castro will improve relations with the US, then we probably deserve what we will get twenty years from now: The wrath of young commander Elian as he storms the coast of Florida with Cuban troops to settle an old score. We have set a precedent that it is OK to use children as political bartering tools. We couldn’t have said any better that they are commodities rather than human beings.

CJ

Thanks, y’all

RE: “Speed Limit“

05/02/00

Y’all have to do something — this article is great. I called both of my senators from Georgia and neither of them were familiar with the specific language in your article. Both had voted for the bill for the penalties on meth labs.

Thanks.

Jennifer Smith
Atlanta, Ga.

Freedom from offense

RE: “Speed Limit“

05/02/00

I am really frightened by the mentality that keeping people uninformed and ignorant will keep them safe.

An impotent public would have no one else to depend on other than the government. This type of leadership leaves us wide open to widespread deliberate misinformation and misuse of power — all in the interest of public good. Sound sci-fi to you? A reminder to ourselves: The First Amendment does not grant us the right to not be offended. Most importantly, we must ask ourselves, why must we continually defend our First Amendment rights to our own elected officials?

Melissa Holmes

Take out the garbage

RE: “Speed Limit“

05/02/00

I’m for any bill that can get some of the garbage off the Internet. Illegal drugs and sex information on the Internet would be the two priorities. Information on the building of weapons should be included also. We now have a monster that is serving no one but the lowlife of this country.

Fishin Faye

WAY better than being invisible

RE: “Militant Marketing March“

05/02/00

What is the deal? I remember when I came out 10 years ago, you would never see anything gay in the mass media. When Ikea did the ad with the two guys, everyone wanted to see it because it showed gay men in a positive light. Then, a car company did one — I think it was Subaru. Now, people are pissed about gay people being marketed to. I think it is great — we have (finally) arrived.

Chris Card
Philadelphia, Penn.

CMDC not all that evil

RE: “Earth Day is Evil?“

05/01/00

In your article, “Earth Day is Evil?” you wrote: “… the extremist views of the Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism would lead to a society where big corporations would be allowed to roam freely without restraint — lawless corporations in a lawless land.”

You are correct about one thing: In laissez-faire capitalism, corporations would be allowed to roam freely without restraint.

However, corporations that infringe on the rights of individuals would be restricted by law. The Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism has never, to my knowledge, condoned corporations that infringe on individual rights. But there’s a big difference between “restricting” a company from say, stealing patented inventions or dumping their waste in your backyard, versus “restricting” a company from selling a load of copies of MS Windows. If companies and consumers choose to buy and/or sell Windows, let them do it!

Jason Roth

We’re here, we’re queer, we’re going shopping!

RE: “Militant Marketing March“

05/01/00

Of course gay people have been co-opted by the market place. Everything today is done in the name of the global corporate marketplace. Their self-serving, profit-raiding interests are the mantra of the new millennium — and no different from the dreams and desires of everyone else.

Curtis Fallgren

Banned in the USA

RE: “Speed Limit“

05/01/00

Obviously the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Theoretically, any university with a good medical or chemistry database could be targeted under this law.

Medical cannabis users have a legal right to use and process cannabis and its extracts, even under federal law. However, legal information published for use by patients can, of course, be accessed by people unprotected by legal exemptions, and would therefore be unconstitutionally banned by this legislation. Will the passage of this law be followed by book burnings at all public libraries?

Judy Osburn