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 Americans are as goodhearted as everyone tells us we are, why are they 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

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: “Pin-Pointless Bombing”
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.

Marc 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

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