United
We Stand
A silver lining to this big black
cloud called the "Bush administration" is that it has managed —
through lying, stealing and murdering — to unify people around
the world against it. People who have never marched or protested before
are doing so now.
I pray this energy doesn't dry up. Our so-called democracy
is at stake now more than ever. We must put down the labels such as
Democrat, Green, Republican, Libertarian, conservative, liberal, anarchist,
etc,. and find our common ground. We need to clean up the election
process and get people elected that represent us. We need to get citizens
to be active, educated voters.
The power should not be in the hands of the military
industrial complex, the oil and auto manufacturing industries, or
the chemical industry — multi-billion dollar corporations that
are getting fat off of toxifying and destroying our homes, our bodies
and our earth. If change doesn't happen soon it will be time for a
revolution. Remember the Boston Tea Party? It's about time for another
party! The dream we dream together becomes reality.
Pamela Driscoll
Eugene
Cost
of War
War destroys both the past and the
present. Not just humans will die if we go to war. The past will also
perish along with them, because every time a tank drives across rocky
hills it could be destroying known and unknown archeological sites.
Are we willing to destroy these lives and artifacts in our quest for
oil and power in a senseless war?
Early humans came from Africa, but then moved into
the Middle East. These early humans then settled into the Tigris/Euphrates
River valleys. This area, which includes Iraq, became what is now
known as the "cradle of civilization." In Africa, these early humans
were hunters, gatherers and scavengers. It was in Iraq where these
early humans learned to domesticate grains and animals and true civilization
was born.
We must balance the loss of present day life against
the loss of history. Humans are not in short supply in Iraq, but the
archeological record is. Should the past be sacrificed for oil? Should
the lives of people in Iraq be sacrificed for oil?
I now call upon the people of the world to take action.
Take a stand against this war. Don't let our past be erased to further
the needs of our governments. Take a stand. The sacrifice is too great.
Molly Simons-Kimbal
Jefferson Middle School
Power
in Numbers
There are roughly 140,000 people
in the city of Eugene. I would like to believe that out of this number,
there are at least 10 percent who are passionately against this war,
against this administration, and all of the lies fed to the people
of this country. The numbers of participants at the latest rallies
were so incredibly low, I find it quite sad. If 10 percent of Eugene's
residents feel as I do, then why aren't we seeing groups of 10,000
to 13,000 protesters? C'mon, people! Let's unite. Can we stop the
war at this point? Probably not. Can we try to stop some of the laws
that our government is trying to pass right under our snotty little
Willamette Valley noses? HELL YES! Write to your senators, keep protesting.
Ask everyone you know to come out to rally. When they tell you they
have too much to do, tell them... IT CAN WAIT! What are we afraid
of? Let's take chances and use our voices. We have become way too
comfortable and complacent, let's open our eyes and look beyond these
borders. We need power in numbers. I hope to see a lot more of you
out there next time and every time. Democracy is in the balance. Tip
the scale.
Phaedra Fillé
Eugene
Free
the Walls
The concept of a free wall is alluring
as it could aid in the training of our young graffiti soldiers. However,
it is of utmost importance to continue developing and exercising guerilla
tactics of our aerosol assault teams. The acquired knowledge and techniques
are crucial and must not be abandoned. The notion that a free wall
could serve as a sponge to absorb the city's graffiti problem is laughable.
The suggestion that we "keep art to structures where the owners condone
it" is insulting in an age of such unequal ownership opportunity.
We must ask ourselves, do we respect "they" who have repeatedly proven
their hatred of our beloved Hip Hop? The conflicting agendas of Hip
Hop and "they" are analogous to good and evil. Hip Hop aspires to
unite the minds and bodies of humankind for communication and enlightenment.
The aspirations of "they" are capital gain usually by exploitation,
complete economic control and imperialism, the enemy of diversity.
Naturally "they" hate Hip Hop unless of course it is being used for
their own financial benefit. We should not cower to their demands
with hopes that "they," for some mysterious reason, "will have to
promote free, legal walls."
Abel Beck
Eugene
Art
is Alive
What a well-done graceful mural!
It's colorful and alive. In these times of great repression people
sometimes feel like some color and creativity being expressed might
lead to chaos. We're lucky if art leads to change, and breaking of
authoritarianism and ridged regimentation is necessary for our survival
Kari Johnson
Eugene
Take
a Stand
A war with Iraq represents the abysmal
failure of United States institutions entrusted with voicing our collective
opposition to its brutality and origins. The Democratic party and
public broadcasting have failed to present the implications of this
war fairly. Only the Green Party and a few underfunded media sources
are presenting the implications of this war as supporting oil interests,
slaughtering innocent people, and stealing our taxes that would otherwise
assist our crumbling human services and education.
Democrats missed the lesson of their recent election
defeat. The message was clear from voters saying they need to stand
for something. That "something" is an increasingly powerless national
and world population crying out for peace as more than the absence
of war.
When the Democratic party fails to come together and
advocate for peace, "public" broadcasting fails to report its implications.
Attempting to be impartial, public broadcasting moves further right
to give voice to the Republican and Democrat's paradigm of war without
checking in with "the public." Educators, researchers, social service
workers, and an array of ordinary citizens are virtually ignored by
"our" media. Retirement security, health care, drug treatment, education,
mental health, and a stable economy as connections to peace have lost
the only large societal organizations left to fight for them or speak
for them.
Mike Meyer
Eugene
Read
Reality
Hopefully some of the 66 percent
of American people supporting a pre-emptive attack on Iraq will take
a momentary timeout to read some of the alternative news on the Internet.
Before Hitler's pre-emptive attack on Poland he claimed
he was doing so in "defense" of Germany. A high percentage of the
German people believed he was telling the truth. He wasn't! But back
in the 1930-40s the German people didn't have alternative news as
it exists in the world today.
The process is simple and requires the linking of
only two words. For example: Bush Hitler; Bush BinLaden; Bush Hussein;
Bush Taliban. There are probably hundreds of other combinations that
bring forth information not reported by America's mainstream news
media. Link the name Bush to World Com; Enron Mahfouz; Arbusto; Harken;
Gulf Stream Realty; Tri-lateral Investment, even Quadaffi, Khomeini,
or Noriega.
If after reading the available information you still
choose to support a pre-emptive war, at least you can never plead
ignorance for following your appointed leader. The German people didn't
have that luxury!
John Fluent
Eugene
Don't
Mention It
So, the war has begun. My Japanese
partner and I go online to see what's happening. She reads first from
the Asahi Shinbun, in Japanese, that following a series of
cruise missile attacks and bomb droppings by the Americans, Baghdad's
main hospital has been flooded with injured civilians seeking attention.
She reads that the reporter's contact at the hospital had to hang
up because he was too busy with the steady flow of incoming patients.
My turn, I log on to first BBC, then CNN. I read that Bush dropped
2-ton bombs in an attempt to kill "five key members of the Iraqi regime."
I look at sample photos of the bombs. I wonder how big the explosion
from a 2-ton bomb must be, and how we can possibly declare with a
straight face that these are the weapons of choice to kill five old
men. I look for mention of the hospitals, of the civilians —
nothing. Why this might be is clarified for me by a disclaimer at
the foot of CNN's lead story: "CNN's policy is to not report information
that puts operational security at risk."
Mark Post
Eugene
The
Question
I wonder as I watch coverage of the
unrelenting terror and carnage being inflicted upon the people of
Baghdad, if everyone who voted for Nader in 2000 still believes that
there is no difference between the two mainstream candidates. Just
wondering.
Michael Lane
Eugene
Elections
Affected
If a Severe-Red Terror-Alert is announced,
what would the effect be on the ability to conduct local and federal
elections? In the days after Sept. 11, 2001, the junta issued several
national-security directives declaring an official state-of-emergency
and granting itself extraordinary and extra-judicial executive authority
to do anything it wants. This includes the inherently illegitimate
power to commit each and any investigation or operation in secret,
to deny that any such civil, police, or paramilitary operations exist,
to forbid anyone from divulging any knowledge of any operation under
threat of secret incarceration, as well as operating without any oversight
at all — congressional, journalistic or otherwise.
These self-appointed tyrannical mechanisms and the
national state of emergency have not been rescinded, much less acknowledged.
The publicly known crimes of the current U.S. regime are egregious
enough, but it is certain that the covert horrors being perpetrated
are persistent and legion. Blitzkrieg inevitably engenders quagmire.
Invasion plus occupation plus sandstorm plus rainstorm equals bloody
muddy civil war. The thief who stole the last election now deliberately
commits actions that guarantee this administration's loss of the 2004
presidential election, should an honest election be held.
Bernard Nickerson
Eugene
Conformist
Confusion
In the mid-1960s the model of anti-war
protest was established: No matter how big the demo, no disorder.
By the end of the decade huge peace parades prevailed but Nixon said
they didn't influence U.S. war policy. This collapsed the protest
scene from the early '70s to the end of the war in 1975. Millions
of Asians were killed during that decade of war.
Now it is even clearer how much contempt Empire has
for popular opinion anywhere. But still we have those who demand only
a passive, obedient form of "opposition" to war. They even employ
a Police Commission, the volunteer "peacekeepers," to enforce conformist
protest.
Robert Bolman (3/13) exults in how "effective" the
2/15 demo was. "Effective?" What a preposterously self-satisfied misuse
of a word. Bolman further claims, in his liberal narcissism, to "impress"
the "average folks." But who respects feeble, self-policed gestures?
Polite obedience and collaboration with the cops cannot be confused
with resistance.
John Zerzan
Eugene
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