Planned Parenthood and the Bush Ethic
Re: “Planned Parenthood’s Iowa Predicament”
8/7/02

Everyday, I find myself either embarrassed or disappointed by America. This case is clearly an invasion of privacy and appears to be a silent witch hunt. George Bush has restored “good ol’boys” ethics back into our country. This article is appalling and makes me sad! I am a 31 year old woman who is a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood, as my own government won’t provide health insurance for me unless I join some corporate cult! (I’m a freelance artist). Please tell me that there are more people who are fed up with ignorant bureaucratic nonsense!!!

Mclare

Logging It vs. Leaving It
Re: “Fight Fire With Logging?”
8/1/02

Removing wood from forests depletes soils; left in small enough pieces, slash decomposes relatively quickly and poses less fire threat than much commercial slash (above 2 feet). I advocate low-grade thinning-logging, leaving behind larger trees and slash that is very low to the ground. Of course, this is labor intensive and unprofitable — but couldn’t I divert some of my tax dollars from that bloated military budget to help create the needed funding?

Peter Wildberger

I live in Washington state and have seen the awful effects of clear cutting. Imagine a huge field with nothing but stumps, underbrush, and logging scraps. The underbrush grows much faster than re-planted trees, if indeed trees have been planted. The entire area is like a tinderbox, and if it catches fire it will quickly spread to uncut trees. The proposed Bush plan will not prevent forest fires but it will allow the timber industry to complete the destruction of our national forests. Which side is he on?

Mary Branch


Bush’s Healthy Forests agenda stinks to high profit. Bush saying that there are “too many trees” reminds me of the film Mozart, in which the king declares that Mozart’s music has “too many notes.”

Lumber salvage companies fight over contracts to clear burned forests. Who do you think starts these fires? It is arson for profit. It is a move to get the lumber companies into our protected forests.

To cut every third tree, etc., is crazy thinking. Bush and his forest managers need to be thinned out, not the trees.

How can Bush suggest that he wants to pursue this forest fire problem right away when he has cut funds for forest management and firefighting? He is using money meant for brush removal for roads and lumber, at taxpayer expense.

J. Stevens

Corporate Pirates and Primates
Re: “Making the Most of a Scandal”
7/29/02

I am sickened by the recent corporate piracy and I suspect it is systemic by now, excepting those few who quietly perform their profit-making, with all due deference to stockholders.

In searching for an analogy that expresses the inevitability of corporate greed, I find one in the monkey hunting practices of Asia and Central America. In tragically similar fashion, the hunters place a transparent jar with a narrow opening, containing a juicy morsel, near a monkey habitat. Soon a monkey hungrily plunges his hand into the jar, grabs the morsel, but, cannot remove his hand while gripping the goody. Rather than lose the food, the monkey remains with his hand trapped in the jar. He is an easy prey for the hunter.

SEC investigators, if they really care about the stockholders of America, need not search long and hard to find Corporate cookie jars frequented similarly by CEO primates.

DJM