Various

Letters Various Are you ready for Armageddon?

The fanatical SuperPatriots view contrary opinions and other cultures as
threats. They express exclusive superiority. Their priority is their
ideology, their government. They have convinced themselves that God is on
their side. They don‘t want to hear any correction or gloomy prediction that
might undermine national morale. People who express a desire for peace, free
speech and the right to be heard annoy them!

Letters Various War for oil

It‘s becoming obvious that the Bush administration is intent on having its war on Iraq no matter what: no matter that most of the world, including Iraq‘s neighbors, oppose the war; no matter that, at this point, the weapons inspectors have found nothing of substance.

Letters Various Kill your television

So, CBS would not allow MoveOn.org to buy air time during the Super Bowl to help expose some of the BU$H Administration’s deceptions, but they would allow Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake to bump and grind their way through a tacky halftime song-and-dance number which resulted in the exposure of one of Jackson’s breasts. Interesting.

Letters Various Boycott the true fascist

Occasionally -- know thy enemy and all -- I tune in to Rush Limbaugh. I was particularly interested in what his spin might be on the recent peace demonstrations. After all, the “Talent on Loan From God“ has the proper view on everything, and I was not surprised to hear him say that those calling for no war are “anti-Americans“ and “fascists“.

Letters Various Who’s fooling who?

I must admit that my curiosity got the better of me on Saturday, January 18. I made a solemn vow to myself not to venture anywhere near downtown at noon because of the scheduled “peace march” and had every intention of sticking to that vow. Unfortunately, demonstrations by the hopelessly naïve tend to draw me like a moth to a flame and I was unable to stop myself from stumbling, zombie-like, to the center of town.

Letters Various Bomb Iraq

This song (was) performed live, by a surprise musical guest at Saturday‘s peace demonstration in Petoskey.

Michele Burian • via email

If You‘re Happy And You Know It Bomb Iraq -- By John Robbins

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are Saudi,
And your alibi is shoddy,
And your tastes remain quite gaudy,
Bomb Iraq.

Letters Various Stop Saddam early

Soon after 9/11, 2001, I wrote a letter stating that I was sure that the majority of the Arabi nations didn‘t condone the terrorist atrocities. I also stated that I thought Islam would police themselves. I was wrong. They have done practically nothing.

Letters Various Say yes to treatment instead of punishment

As many of you know, I have been a lawyer for minorities and victims of racial and political prejudice all of my “lawyering life,“ 1949-2003. First the McCarthy era, next the civil rights movement, then the women‘s movement for equality. More recently standing up against the widespread prejudice against gays and lesbians.

Letters Various The pitchfork‘s point

There is consensus that the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII was legally and morally wrong. However, we now witness our government committing another major assault on the same basic principle of human rights.

Letters Various Leave the valley alone

Driving in to NMC to classes, I almost always take Keystone Road. I prefer taking this way because I love driving down into the valley and following the river into town. Many times I see people getting ready to hike the trails and enjoy the beauty and serenity that they find along the banks of the Boardman River.

Letters Various Open Letter to Northern Michigan Hospital:

We urge the Northern Michigan Hospital administration to immediately begin bargaining in good faith with its striking nurses.
As an organization promoting grassroots democracy and social justice, the Green Party supports any group of workers who exercise
their right to seek union representation. Once those workers have democratically elected a union to represent them, we support its
representatives‘ efforts to negotiate a contract which ensures its members fair wages, adequate health care benefits, a pension plan
and a voice in the decisions concerning the health and safety of the workplace.

Letters Various Strikers allege unsafe practices at NMH

I am one of the more than 300 nurses on strike at Northern Michigan Hospital. I am also one of the many who did not want a union, when this all began. I went to several of the bargaining meetings and saw first-hand how the hospital was stalling and refusing to bargain in good faith. It was a very difficult decision to go out on strike.

Letters Various On the strike line

I have worked at Northern Michigan Hosptial for 20 years... my entire professional life. It seems unbelievable to find myself walking a strike line.
It is important to respond to the hospital board of directors and CEO concerning their ongoing “puzzlement“ about why we are on that line. It seems to me that they might just want to enlighten themselves and come taIk to us. In fact, to confess this ignorance about why roughly 250 nurses find themselves in this position, is to show that they are derelict in their duties as employers.

Letters Various Water woes

Holly Spaulding‘s article on the “New Water Order“ (11/7) is nothing but a continuation of the disingenuous arguments (already continued ad nauseum) that the Sweetwater Alliance has treated NE readers to over the last few months.
No one has answered some pretty basic questions about the whole Sweetwater hysteria: Why is the Ice Mountain factory, in itself, worth all this hoopla aside from the fact that a foreign multi-national is a good target for mindless protesting? Nothing, after all, makes people lay down on the asphalt like rich foreigners exploiting “our“ resources, right?

Letters Various Remember the soldiers

While reading your article “Opposing a War for Oil“ my heart sank. Not with empathy, but more from memory. I was a Marine stationed in the Philippines during the Gulf War. I was 20, doing what I thought was right, believing my country was behind me. CNN was on in the barracks that night with a young correspondent covering war protectors on American campuses. A feeling came over me of intense loneliness. I felt abandoned. I realized then as I do now that the protestors were a small percentage of the overall country, and that they were not protesting against me but against war. But I was young, away from home and desperately needed the support from the home front.