Letters

Worldgives hope

Being a Norwegian, living in a remote rural part of Norway, I have to congratulate you on publishing one of the most sincere and outspoken newspapers in America. You seem to be able to stand up for yourselves in the midst of all the political chaos and mayhem that constitute American politics to an outsider like me.

It is good to see there are people in America who work towards collective solutions to important social and political issues. However small your publication may be, it brings hope to all non-Americans who hope that your country – with all her possibilities of true greatness – will someday rise to meet her challenges with the common good in mind; not just the needs of the big corporations and the rich.

In Norway, there is deep concern and worry about the American involvement in Iraq. A majority of Norwegians feel that it is wrong to attack Iraq, and many fear what an attack will lead to. It is very easy for us to forget that George W. Bush and cohorts do not represent all Americans, or the way in which they think about the world.

Please do your best to keep up the collective spirit. Please do not stop the struggle for peace and world-wide changes, socially, culturally and politically. Please keep on being a sharp corrective for the Bushes, Powells, Cheneys and Rices of this world.

Tor E. Bekken

Norway

Standing together

I continue to be an avid reader of your newspaper. The war with Iraq is a strong possibility. Neither Bush nor his entourage have proven their case to the world.

I always laugh when I watch Bush on TV struggling to prove his case. I teach English as a second language to foreign students and I am truly amazed at the poor quality of English he uses. Few world leaders have already called him a moron, but it seems as if he enjoys such a title.

We, as Americans, are becoming the mockery of the whole world thanks to him. Our policy as a nation is definitely wrong, the double-standard is plain to see. It now does behoove all of us to stand against such policy, letting the world know that we are not on the side of such a mad administration.

“In unison there is power.”

Jad A. Ghanem

Tucson AZ

Not our enemy

No Third World country should be considered an enemy of the U.S. – just as minorities inside U.S. borders are not the enemy. Over the centuries the U.S. and other developed countries have greatly benefited from their labor and resources – much more than the Third World countries received in return. We need to help, not demonize, them and try to make up for past injustices.

Lanetta Williams

Oakland CA

Lights for peace

Please join me in taking a simple action for peace. Together with thousands of folks around the world, I’m putting a light in my window. If enough of us do the same, we can send a strong message of continued opposition to war and continued hope for peace. It could be a Christmas string or candle, a light bulb, or a lantern. It’s an easy way to keep the light of reason and hope burning, to let others know that they are not alone, and to show the way home to the young men and women who are on their way to Iraq.

MoveOn’s keeping a count of the people who are joining in this simple act, from places all over the globe.

Many readers

via e-mail

Trail of lies

The article by Tim Wheeler (2/15/03) on the Feb. 5 speech of Secretary of State Colin Powel to the UN Security Council brought to my memory other instances of perfidy and plagiarism by spokespersons for the U.S. government.

In the late 1950s officials of the Soviet Union reported that they had shot down a U.S. spy plane which had invaded the air space of the USSR without permission. Adlai Stevenson, then the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, flatly denied to the Security Council that the U.S. was spying on the USSR in contravention of international protocols regarding any such overflights. He was embarrassed to learn that neither he nor President Eisenhower had been informed by the CIA that their agent, Gary Powers, was at that very moment being interviewed by officials of the USSR. That was of course a minor fib compared to the tidal wave of lies by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, McNamara, the Bundy brothers, Kissinger, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, et al. during the war in Viet Nam.

Terence E. Carroll

Reston VA