LETTERS: July 19

Speaking out for Nader

In every publication of PWW articles are written about government lies, crimes, injustices, breaches of the Constitution, illegal surveillances, government-assisted profit scams and on and on. I also am reading in the PWW pressing issues that are in dire need of being addressed: U.S. occupation of Iraq, U.S. support of Israeli occupation of Palestine; continuing and increasing the military budget of the Pentagon; skyrocketing cost of health care, failing government-mandated educational policies, public services cut and/or eliminated and on and on.

PWW insinuates the way to resolving the plight of the U.S. is with Obama rather than McCain. Neither Obama nor McCain have addressed these issues except for McCain who would continue war for 100 years if necessary and except for Obama and McCain who would expand military and foreign policy based on militarism which equates to more war.

Who is speaking out on the issues? Ralph Nader. He speaks out against pharmaceutical and health care corporate control and is in favor of a single-payer health care system projected to save $175 billion plus a year. He speaks out against the bloated military budget of the Pentagon that keeps alive U.S. occupations and interventions for the benefit of corporate fat cats.

How sad it is that the PWW isn’t seizing the moment to speak out for a candidate who does speak out.

From someone who speaks out.

A retired teacher
Boston MA

Best take on Obama

A friend of mine who gets most of her news from New York’s lefty/independent WBAI radio just e-mailed me and asked what I think about Cynthia McKinney running for president on the Green Party ticket, and how I feel about Obama’s “recent shifting opinions.”

My friend is a sensible person who “gets it” that electing Obama would be a huge step forward for progressive politics in this country, and that a McCain win would be a disaster for working-class people, women, African Americans, etc.

But she, like many others who move in left circles, is constantly hearing or reading carping about Obama — he’s not left enough, he changes his position on things, he’s too moderate, he’s really a centrist (surprise!). I don’t know what these complainers expect, or what they propose in order to bring about meaningful change on Jan. 20, 2009. Those who actually think McKinney or Ralph Nader offers something useful — don’t they remember the 2000 elections? Do they seriously think it didn’t make a difference who won then?

I’m going to send my friend the editorial you ran last week (“Eyes on the prize” PWW 7/12-18) because it gives the best take on her questions. As the editorial said, “It’s sad that some who seek progressive change are missing the forest for the trees. But they will not dampen the wide and deep enthusiasm for blocking a third Bush term represented by John McCain, or for bringing Obama by a landslide into the White House with a large Democratic congressional majority.”

Keep up the good work.

Rhonda Schneider
Queens NY

How loathsome

As recently reported, the democratically elected government of Iraq has officially and repeatedly asked that U.S. troops soon withdraw under a sharp timetable. Not surprisingly, the U.S. government has huffily rejected Iraq’s sovereign request.

What is the world to make of this, given the titanic efforts the Bush administration has made, we were told, to create a liberated, democratic Iraq? The implications tend to devastate this most idealistic justification for the invasion of Iraq, a corrupt enterprise that’s already discredited serial rationales.

The obvious explanation is the most difficult to accept: that thousands of U.S. troops have died simply so Bush’s cronies could grab Iraq’s petroleum reserves, while using Iraqi territory as a permanent Pentagon “lily pad,” to use Don Rumsfeld’s dainty expression, from which to threaten and dominate the entire region. And all this over the expressed objections of both American and Iraqi voters.

How banal, how utterly predictable.

How loathsome.

Cord MacGuire
Boulder CO

Note of thanks

Thank you so much for all of the great writing and effort that you put into spreading the word about the University Museum (PWW blog “Houston museum exposes capitalist slavery”). I am forwarding the blog to everyone on our mailing list.

Natasha Turner
Houston TX

Don’t forget

Jesse Helms is dead and gone, and some people may try to revise his views because he became friends with Bono. We must never forget that Jesse Helms was a racist who never supported civil rights.

Chuck Mann
Greensboro NC