Say whatever you want

RE: “Greenwashing on Trial

02/23/01

Freedom of speech seems to also mean freedom to lie.

Seppo Leinonen



Killing them with kindness

RE: “Pin-Pointless Bombing

02/23/01

Ted Rall’s article is persuasive about the failure of bombs to change the minds of the people bombed. The change is in the destruction of life and land.

If we Americans are as goodhearted as everyone tells us we are, why are we overwhelmingly in support of destroying Iraq and killing Arabs?

Betty Molchany



Honest talk about race

RE: “Racial Correctness

02/23/01

You have to question someone who has that word so readily on his tongue that he would let it slip out in front of a large group of African Americans. I am not accusing Bustamante of racism, but I have to question how this person really thinks.

Your commentary keeps open the forum for more positive discussion on racial struggle in the United States. This struggle keeps us deeply divided and may never be resolved, but the more people communicate with an open heart, the more we will make inroads to a more peaceable existence.

Allyson Hill



Imagine

RE: “Pin-Pointless Bombing

02/22/01

If the US didn’t sustain an imaginary threat to the rest of the world, to whom would we sell all those expensive arms?

Frank Serpico



Let them grow hemp

RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/22/01

Other tribes have very successful casinos and are becoming wealthy, financially speaking. If hemp works, let them have it and leave them alone.

Shawna Mason
Azle, TX



Air strikes don’t help the Iraqis

RE: “Pin-Pointless Bombing

02/21/01

The Iraqi people, who are the principal targets of both the bombings and sanctions, will not rise up against Hussein just because the US wants them to.

The purpose of the sanctions is to transform Iraq from a country whose wealth was used in the service of the people — providing free health care, education, water, and electricity — into a “Third World” country, with the scum at the top and the rest of the people with nothing at the bottom. That is the kind of country that US companies like to do business with.

Carolyn Scarr



Actions speak louder than words

RE: “Racial Correctness

02/21/01

It is time to stop focusing on the use of a word instead of the actions of the individual user. Hutchinson’s commentary is right on the money.

Frank Serpico



Thanks for nothing

RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/21/01

What the DEA did was one small step above tuberculosis-infected blankets and gallons of firewater.

Mark Godfrey



Don’t validate the “N-word”

RE: “Racial Correctness

02/20/01

The “N-word” word cuts. It strips people of dignity. Ask an activist like Rosa Parks, an entertainer like Bill Cosby, a Cabinet member like Condoleezza Rice, a professor like Cornell West or Toni Morrison, or any black person who has strived to maintain the dignity that all people deserve. I think they would agree it’s not a word which they care to hear.

Allowing the “N-word” to be commonly used only validates its underlying racism.

Eric Lawrence



Here we go again

RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/20/01

Yet another example of America screwing the Native Americans.

Kim McCormick
Detroit, MI



A kinder, gentler war on drugs

RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/19/01

Here’s my prediction about the future of the drug war: The DEA will be transformed from guns and badges to couches and counselors within 10 years.

Geoffrey Olson



Hutchinson on target

RE: “Racial Correctness

02/18/01

This article is succinct, timely, and its point is very well taken. I could not agree more.

Ralph Wang



Maturity appreciated

RE: “Racial Correctness

02/18/01

Thank you for showing the backbone and good sense to print the word “nigger” in the column about the California Lt. Governor’s use of the word. There is no need to say “N-word” when you mean to say “nigger.” We are grown-ups. We can take it.

Gould B. Hagler
Sandy Springs, Ga.



A revealing slip-up

RE: “Racial Correctness

02/18/01

I am a 26-year-old black male from South Central Los Angeles. I am no race-hater, but I know a racist when I see one. The slip Mr. Bustamante made was a Freudian one. Nigger is not the kind of word you slip out and say unless it is something you are used to saying or thinking on a regular basis. His apologies shall continue to go unheard in the black community.

I guess what I want to know from the writer of this article is this: What good do you get out of defending a self-proven racist? You suggest that all of our black leaders bond together in Bustamante’s defense. But why? When was the last time Bustamante put his neck on the line for us?

Mane Azeem



Business’ war on hemp

RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/18/01

The recent confiscation of hemp plants on Indian territory is just another example of the American government siding with established business operations. It’s not racist, it’s just a matter of business. Established businesses always carry more favor with entrenched government politicos than businesses that threaten the status quo. It’s all politics.

BJ Johnson



RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/16/01

I think the U.S. Government is stupid to oppose the growing of industrial hemp. The only reason I can think of for the opposition is the clout of the timber industry lobby. Hemp makes superior paper to wood and that’s a fact.

Metz Castleberry



End the war on good feelings

RE: “The Drug War Comes to the Rez

02/16/01

I can practically feel my blood boil with rage at the incredible stupidity of the entire so-called war on drugs. Here we have this wonderful plant that is practically a gift from Mother Earth and we ban it’s cultivation because some people might use a variety of it to feel good.

There is an old Humphrey Bogart movie called Key Largo that features some mafiosi who have fallen on hard times. Once prohibition was canceled, business just wasn’t what it used to be. One of the characters consoles another with these words: “Don’t worry. We’ll bring prohibition back, and this time we’ll make it stick”. They did. They just changed substances.

Ien van Houten