Letters

Needs a hearing

President Bush’s state of the union bellicosity was exceeded only by his hyperbole. He was way over the top, what with his apocalyptic warnings of “evil ones,” indeed a terrorist “axis,” bent on devastating chemical and nuclear attacks on American soil. He demanded that the nation appropriate vast new monies for his military and intelligence forces, the very agencies that failed so damnably on Sept. 11 to protect the American people.

The White House will brook no talk of congressional hearings into this massive security and intelligence failure, which previous applications of hundreds of billions of dollars couldn’t prevent from happening in broad daylight. Don’t forget that the Pentagon itself was attacked by Saudi terrorists, citizens of a country close to the CIA’s heart, who were inspired by a rogue former CIA agent, we are told.

There ought to be immediate congressional hearings into the waste, fraud and abuse long acknowledged to exist within the Pentagon’s global superstructure. That the Bush family is so closely associated with both the CIA and the Saudi royal family ought to be of more than passing concern.

But, due to strong pressure from the White House, there won’t be any such hearings for now. Bush’s generals and corporate arms makers want the money first.

Cord MacGuire
Boulder CO

Food for thought

After pondering the Sept. 11 tragedy and the tragedy at Columbine High School and other cases when suicide and murder seem logical options among life’s choices, I tried to analyze our social conditions.

They can be divided into two kinds – the competitive, glorifying the individual and his selfish desires, and the cooperative glorifying society and generosity.

An emphasis on the competitive results in the miseries and perversities we see so much of around us now, while the cooperative would result in just the opposite.

It also seems obvious that the more we emphasize the values of cooperation with generosity a common factor, as opposed to the opposite, competition, with selfishness popular, the better the society will be, with a minimum of violence and a maximum of peaceful activities in the pursuit of happiness.

If this is so, then the glorification of cooperation in society, carried to its extreme, will lead to socialism – a word the average person has been taught to hate and fear. While the opposite, of course will lead to more of our present donnybrook.

However, the common theory is that human nature is not capable of doing any better and that any attempt to improve our conditions would be naive, to say the least. But dare I mention that Jesus Christ advocated the development of all our best possibilities, leading toward socialism?

I suspect our present conditions are a deliberate design by the rich to keep us stupid and submissive.

Al Amery
Pepperell MA

He stood for peace

Westside Peace Action wishes to express its deep sorrow at the death of [PWW editorial board member] Roy Rydell a true friend and the beloved husband of our president, Lillian Rydell. We shall always remember his untiring support in every way of our endeavors to guide us on the way to Peace on Earth for all mankind.

Shirley L. Hyman
New York NY

World peaceor world in pieces

I want to thank Lorenzo Torrez for his letter of Dec. 22. Two wrongs never make a right. The Peace Pilgrim had as a slogan “Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, hatred with love.” We could all be better citizens of the world by ascribing to these few simple truths.

With the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, I feel that a great gesture of world community would be all religions of the world to gather resources and rebuild the ancient Buddhas the Taliban destroyed.

We are after all, one world, all brothers and sisters. Like it or not.

Larry Golden
Mountain Home AR