That's where you come in
Feedback from our readers
By Our readers
Nefarious subversion
Re: Your May 16 editorial about changing postal rates for magazines. Sadly, it seems our federal legislature and judiciary have only enabled the current administration's un-American efforts to undermine constitutionally mandated free speech and freedom of the press.
This assertion is substantiated by their virtual acquiescence amid Orwellian mainstream media calls for oversight and dissolution of "net neutrality" and World Wide Web features-like YouTube and MySpace-that can beneficially circumvent mainstream media's oppressive stranglehold on information services. They've also been strangely silent while faux-alternative media cartel Village Voice/Ruxton has taken control of some of the largest alt-newsweeklies across the country.
This is why citizens should demand that Congress scrutinize why the politically loaded Postal Regulatory Commission is altering the magazine-mailing price structure in the first place, why the price structure change is precipitous (the new rates are effective this July!), why publishing-behemoth Time Warner's logically self-beneficial plan has been essentially adopted at the foreseeable expense of smaller and presumably more independent publishers and what will Congress do about it in remediation if the change is found to have subverted the First Amendment.
Ivan Smason,
Santa Monica
Our only chance
Bravo for your May 2 editorial about Dennis Kucinich! When people tell me, "I love Dennis Kucinich, but he doesn't have a chance," I respond: "He's our only chance!"
That might sound like a radical statement, considering the inspiring speeches delivered by the candidates at the convention in April. So many people told me how thrilled they were to have such a promising lineup to choose from. "Any one of them would be a great president!" they gushed. But how many people really listened to what the candidates were saying? (For instance, John Edwards came right out and said that his healthcare plan includes subsidizing the insurance companies.) And how many people are looking at the candidates' actions rather than their campaign rhetoric? It's one thing to say you are against the war, and another to vote to continue funding it. Kucinich is the only one who tells it like it is-if Congress wants to end the war, they simply have to stop feeding it. [Editor's note: This letter was written before Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Chris Dodd voted against funding the war without a timetable for withdrawing troops.]
The three candidates the media have anointed front-runners have all been quoted saying that the possibility of attacking Iran is "on the table." How can we even consider allowing someone to lead our nation when they show such shortsightedness of the disastrous consequences of yet another conflict in the Middle East? Have they learned nothing from our invasion and occupation of Iraq and the lies that pulled us into it? Are they so sheltered from reality that they don't recognize the same propaganda techniques being used on us again? I want a president who is at least as smart as I am!
Endorsing Kucinich isn't a protest vote-it's putting your bet on our only real chance. Dennis Kucinich stands alone with the wisdom, vision and courage we need to lead and inspire Americans to create the future we want for ourselves and generations to follow. We can't afford another go-along-to-get-along non-leader, and I don't think the American people will bother voting for one. If we really want to take back our country and our future in this next election, we should be telling the media to take a hike and put everything we've got into getting Dennis Kucinich elected. I am.
Jeeni Criscenzo,
Oceanside
Editor's note: Ms. Criscenzo is working for the Kucinich campaign.
Too many ‘whiteys'
Re: Edwin Decker's May 16 "Sordid Tales" column about The Black Codes. Agreeably, it is no stretch of one's imagination that this very type of human discrimination goes on today toward the non-white populace.
Consider Rajnii Eddins, a teacher of students in Seattle, who was seized by force for a non-threatening approach to officers that were arresting one of his cast members. He is to go to trial for something police say was "Obstruction of a police official."
Never happened. Read his story on MySpace or Google his name. It is a pity this sort of nonsensical folly still goes on.
Eddins simply inquired why his student was being arrested, apparently for spitting gum on the pavement. Most likely her skin colour had a lot to do with it, as did Eddins'.
We are all one colour here on this planet we call Earth, and would be wise to treat all the same.
Too many "whiteys" are in power to ever, I believe, bring about change.
Oh yes, I am of Anglo-Saxon descent with white, pale skin. English, Irish, German-a mixed "Whitey." I see all people the same, though. Thank you for at least letting the others in this world know we should consider the plight of others' races making every effort to survive like all of us do.
Will Weckel,
North Park
Shutter-bugged
As an amateur but enthusiastic photographer, I was not prepared for your recent photo contest, but if before the next one I find that I have accumulated any bland, meaningless, trivial, pointless pictures, I will certainly enter them.
Lyle Davidson,
Downtown
Published: 06/06/2007
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