The following is a selection of recent letters to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “Washington’s criminal war against Iraq enters its third year”
This article is an excellent summary of an utterly appalling situation that leaves me speechless with rage. Unfortunately what is happening now is most likely harbinger to much worse. We are dealing with lunatics.
RB Langley,
British Columbia, Canada
22 March 2005
Sunday March 19th was the second anniversary of our invasion of Iraq. A hundred thousand people marched in the sunshine from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square, London, calling for our government to withdraw our troops from Iraq. There were moving speeches from Tony Benn, Tariq Ali, and those who had lost loved ones and felt betrayed by Blair for leading us into an illegal war. The event coincided with Wales winning rugby’s Grand Slam. Guess which story dominated the Sunday front pages? There was hardly a mention of the demo in the newspapers, and minimum coverage on TV. What is the reason for this? Who is behind the censorship, and why? Next stop: a police state?
CB
London, UK
20 March 2005
On “Minnesota: Ten killed in deadliest school shooting since Columbine massacre”
In looking further into the lives of these poor souls, we can see the lack of a loving home, and a society which turns its back on its weakest sectors of the population. These are the main factors leading to these tragedies. More than likely the boy suffered from a mental disease, but this is not the real reason for his actions. These tragedies will continue in the future and at a much higher rate, because people are living for the wrong reasons, not for one another as they should, but because of competition, greed and the love of money and possessions, without consciousness of a world that is in great despair. We are living in the most shallow and decrepit society, a society which has been taught not to see the suffering of the world because of itself which is the root of the suffering. Goods and things are the blinders which keep us bothered by them in order not to see the truth; they are also the things which keep us from loving our brother and neighbor. I know that if there was just one, just one soul who cared about this boy, sacrificed his wants for him, he could have been saved and this never would have happened. The truth is there are not many that sacrifice themselves for the sake of a weaker brother anymore; they are deceived by money and its false hopes. I do not think there has been a more violent nation and society on earth and it is my belief that because of the evil that rules this land, violence in this country will continue to become worse and more frequent.
Thank you for addressing this issue and God Bless You,
MG
23 March 2005
On “Iraq, Macquarie Fields and Australia’s ‘History Wars’”
I am writing regarding the plight of the residents of Macquarie and other neighborhoods subject to the same harassment and public denigration. A method that has been successfully employed as a countermeasure to this abuse is the filming of these incidents. Certainly Rodney King is the first that comes to mind. From a positive perspective for the residents it is a viable, non-confrontational method of combating their immediate situation and frustrations. The more passive the residents remain, the better the purpose is served. Being confrontational only exacerbates the situation, festering more futile confrontations for the government and media to distort. Certainly with film depicting on-going unprovoked harassment by police, there is the real possibility of bringing the socio-economic issues to the fore that are the root cause of these problems, and the government policies of which they are a direct manifestation, exposing government, police and media collusion and deceit. There certainly are other implications which you are more aware of than I. For the working class residents of Macquarie Fields, while presenting them a positive method to vindicate their claims of harassment and of being scapegoats for the system, it will help to elucidate their political and social class consciousness and those of other working class Australians, who find them selves in a similar position. In light of the positive response to Mike Head’s latest campaign speech, it would also bode well for the Party. I think this a practical, easy to employ tactic that carried out with due diligence and caution, could yield a quite a deal.
Sincerely,
DD
Melbourne, Australia
17 March 2005
On “The dysfunctional society: US billionaires on the rise - roads, bridges in decay”
Lest anyone think that the CEOs may deserve their huge bonuses because perhaps they do indeed accomplish a lot for their respective firms: the March 13 New York Times Business Section ran a report by Jonathan Glater documenting the fact that over 400 companies in 2004 restated (lowered) their earnings but only “very, very rarely” got back any money from the CEOs whose bonuses were based on the faulty inflated earnings. And, Glater reported, often the earnings revisions resulted from “questionable accounting or other possible wrongdoing that meant the numbers leading to bonuses were inaccurate.” Two reasons cited for companies not seeking to recover the bonus money are (1) the large legal expense involved compared to the amount that could be recovered and (2) the “bad publicity” such a case might stir up.
JH
New York
22 March 2005