LETTERS

Treat all candidates alike
Your Feb. 11-17 issue lauds California Assembly Bill 583, which establishes public funding for state office. But your article didn’t mention that AB 583 requires minor party and independent candidates to get twice as many $5 contributions as Republicans and Democrats must get.
The principle that every candidate should be treated alike works very well in Maine and Arizona, the states which pioneered “Clean Elections.” You would be ballistic if AB 583 said Republicans only need half as many $5 contributions to qualify as Democrats. So why not mention the flaw in AB 583? If the People’s Weekly World, which represents a group that has a long history of fighting for equality in election law for everyone, won’t discuss this, who will?

Richard Winger
Editor, Ballot Access News
San Francisco CA

Nobody is above the law
Just as Nixon was wrong, he broke the law and was impeached, so should Bush be held responsible for his actions in breaking the law. Bush should be impeached. Nobody is above the law!

Geoff Lee
New York NY

Media falls down on job
The mainstream media, as to be expected, swallowed hook, line and sinker the president’s politically motivated “revelation” about breaking up an alleged terrorist plot several years ago to hijack and crash an airliner into a Los Angeles skyscraper.
This despite the fact that no one in the media has seen or talked to the alleged perp nor anyone else who supposedly was part of this purported plot, not to mention the innumerable lies this worst-ever president has told us previously in his miserable reign.
When will the media demand evidence? When will the media begin doing their jobs? When will the public demand of their elected federal government representatives the impeachment of this lying, murderous president? And when will see George W. Bush in the dock on trial before the International Criminal Court, which he so rightly fears and despises?

Willard B. Shapira
Minneapolis MN

Cruel and unusual
The decision of the Supreme Court not to give a pardon to Clarence Allen, a sickly 76-year-old, shows how barbaric as a nation we have become (“California executes man in wheelchair,” PWW 1/21-27). Do we as a nation think we are wiser than the Almighty God (who is ready to forgive in a large way)?
Who appointed any one of us as people of this country to judge others, and to become hardened, merciless and unforgiving?
This country points fingers at other (Third World) countries for their inhumane treatments of their subjects, while with much arrogance the so-called justice system puts to death a man so ill that he would have died soon anyway.
The attitude of this nation frightens me. The route this country is taking is extremely dangerous — it has become insane.
Let us all join each other in heartfelt prayers to have this country return to its sanity!

Jad A. Ghanan
Tucson AZ

Memorialize left writers
I recently learned that an auditorium chair in the new Minneapolis Public Library, set to open this May, has been dedicated to the memory of the great Midwestern writer, Meridel Le Sueur. Other authors have been nominated for this honor, too. See www.wilbers.com/MinnesotaAuthorsCampaign.htm for a full list.
Someone who certainly deserves recognition is the revolutionary poet Thomas McGrath, a victim of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Years later he resumed teaching, after working many jobs. A $500 total secures a “chair” and pledges for are $50 invited.
Readers of the PWW might want to help by getting donations together in smaller amounts to make up a $50 pledge. It is important that as many writers as possible from the left and anti-establishment scene have chairs so that future users of the library will take note of them.
The deadline for this project is May 1.

Betty Smith
President, International Publishers
New York NY

Oppose oppressive bill
The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a coalition of over 200 groups, is calling on individuals and organizations to oppose HR 4681, the misnamed “Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006.”
In a Feb. 14 statement, the Campaign said HR 4681, introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) after the recent Palestinian legislative election which resulted in a Hamas victory, “goes far beyond reiterating the current U.S. ban on direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority; it also calls for many troubling provisions that would punish and isolate the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote. This unconstructive approach would only perpetuate the status quo of violence, military occupation and human rights violations rather than promoting dialogue and a just, peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
Among other things, the bill would severely restrict U.S. humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and deny them the ability to receive assistance from international financial institutions.
The Campaign is urging e-mails to members of Congress, meetings with congresspeople during the President’s Day district work period (Feb. 20-24), and participation in a national call-in day on Feb. 28. For more information, visit the Campaign’s web site at www.endtheoccupation.org.

Mark Almberg
Chicago IL

Wants Communist perspective
Greetings of love and peace. I am a devout communist gay male who is in prison because of homophobia and oppressive state laws.
I really enjoy reading People’s Weekly World and Political Affairs. There is a lot of great information in these periodicals. However, as a prison inmate I am unable to send any money. Please send me your publications.
I appreciate the beautiful format of your newspaper and magazine and I read each article many times over. It is a great feeling to have a communist perspective as it relates to current events.

A prisoner
Brunswick NC

Wal-Mart and health care
Great article on health care: “Maryland makes Wal-Mart pay” (PWW 1/21-1/27). Those 1,000 workers and jobs that are being threatened in Annapolis are not real jobs if they are working for Wal-Mart.
As far as health care is concerned, if we all practiced prevention with more Eastern and natural medicine, we would learn more of what is important, live longer and be more prosperous.

Joseph P. Donnelly
Allston MA