Letters 7/14/05

July 13, 2005

When will the killing stop?
It’s still hard for me to believe that our country pre-emptively and unilaterally “shocked and awed” Baghdad, killing thousands of innocent human beings. Every day since our President’s “mission accomplished” statement, I wonder, when the killing will stop?
Unsettled by the war, I’ve been striving to develop a better lifestyle. The following poem by Andrea Ayvazian has helped me with direction and hope. It may help some of your readers.

The Only Sermon
if we dug a huge grave miles wide, miles deep and buried every rifle, pistol, knife, bomb, bayonet
if we jumped upon fleets of tanks and fighter jets with tool boxes, torches
unwelded them dismantled them turned them into scrap metal
if every light-skinned man in a silk tie said to every dark man in a turban
I vow not to kill your children and heard the same vow in return
if every elected leader agreed to stop lying
if every child was fed as well as racehorses bred to win derbies
if every person with a second home gave it to a person with no home
if every mother buried her parents not her sons and daughters
if every person violent in the name of God were to find God
we would grow silent, still for a moment, a lifetime
we would hear infants nursing at the breast
hummingbirds hovering in flight
we would touch a canyon wall and feel the earth vibrate
we would hear two lovers sigh across the ocean
we would watch old wounds grow new flesh and jagged scars disappear
as time was layered upon time we would slowly be ready to begin.

Tom Mead • TC

See ‘End of Suburbia‘
Suburban sprawl is: “The greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world,” and, “High entropy made visible.”
-- James Howard Kunstler

Do you worry about feeding your children, heating your home, or civil unrest? Yeah, me neither, let‘s party! Let‘s be typical American patriots by spending ourselves into credit card oblivion, filling up storage lockers with plastic lawn furniture made in China sold at some Blow-Mart 40 minutes from here.
Do you think if I’m a super patriot I can file for bankruptcy at a drive thru? Hey, isn’t that just past the casino exit? You got any money for gas and cigarettes? Questions, questions, questions, flooding the minds of avid consumers of mainstream media all over this land.
One question most consumers aren’t asking is; What is “peak oil“ and how and/or when will it change my life?
Peak oil is the point in time when extraction of oil from the earth reaches its highest point and then begins to decline. We won’t be able to say with certainty when we have reached peak oil until after he fact. Many experts say we have already reached the peak. Others say not yet, but within the next few years.
The reason they aren’t asking this very important question is even more alarming. Not only is it an indictment of corporate media and political leadership, but one that questions the very heart of the political ideology that runs this nation and thus the world: Is capitalism headed for a structural if not catastrophic collapse? Is it sustainable?
What should I do? Well, that’s why we are sponsoring this film, “The End of Suburbia,” Wednesday, July 20 at 7 p.m. in the Grand Traverse Governmental Center cafeteria, with all welcome to attend and discuss this issue.

Mark Nixon • TC


Going to the dogs
I am writing in reference to classified ads for dogs. It has come to our attention that there may be animals for sale, advertised in local newspapers, that have been bred, or are being
sold for use in illegal dog fighting. I am writing in an attempt to curb this situation before it becomes a problem.
I am asking that the staff at your office please help us in fighting this particular crime. If you receive classified ads for breeds of dogs, or puppies, for sale, or adoption, that are known or suspected to be fighting breeds (Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, etc.) please have someone contact your local animal control office, or law enforcement. Key words to look for include: “Sport Bred,” “Game Bred,” “Game Tested,” “Sporting Breed,” “Gaming Breed,” “Sport Quality,” and “Game Quality.”
Any of these key phrases linked to a dog that is not a traditional hunting breed, could be a tip that it is being sold or bred for illegal dog fighting purposes. Please make your staff aware of these phrases, and urge them to be on the lookout. This type of crime has, so far, not been a problem in our area (that we know of). And we would like to keep it that way.

Norma Eason • Animal Welfare
League of Benzie County

Greedy bunch update
The active and retired working classes should show support for one-another at a time when solidarity is needed more than ever. We shoud all show our support as one by putting pressure on those in Washington, D.C., to combat the many takeaways this administration is enacting through Congress.
The constant tactics used to keep us divided gives them a ruling edge. The looting of our tax dollars here and abroad has weakened, and in some cases, eliminated, social programs which goes beyond being unpatriotic.
Now this greedy bunch are attempting to dismantle our Social Security program, allowing Wall Street to divide these funds. As in the past, they will be able to manipulate and cook the books. The cost of transferring these funds would be phenomenal.
Our corporate-run government is gradually diminishing our democracy and freedom. We are fast approaching the have and have-nots, which is feudalism. The middle and lower classes have to level the playing field and begin participating in changing the direction of Bush‘s greedy agenda.
Democracy must be won; it is not a given.

John Sanchez • TC