The following is a selection of recent letters to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “Northwest and Delta executives to make millions from bankruptcies”
Mr. Isaacs,
Thank you for your article. I am a 25-year employee of Northwest. What is happening is so disgusting to all of us. Yet, there seems to be nothing we can do. Thanks for bringing it to the attention of many.
CP
27 September 2005
* * *I loved this article. Thank you for showing what airline employees have been saying all along: While fuel prices and competitive fare pricing have hurt the industry, nothing has hurt it more than the people at the top. I only wish this was making headlines on the local news, but every time someone speaks out against the execs they try to shift the attention to the mechanics and what damage they’ve done in less than a month on strike. My dad is walking the picket line as often as possible, but had to seek employment outside the industry. He’ll still be walking on days he’s not working (mainly weekends) and my mom and I are still working at NWA (for the time being). We’re facing pay cuts and loss of our pensions (I’m only 30! I shouldn’t have to worry about this yet) if we don’t lose our jobs, while the execs get to walk away never fearing for their financial future. I wish they could walk in our shoes just for a moment. Thanks again for being a voice for the little people like me and my family.
MI
Farmington, Minnesota
30 September 2005
This administration’s declaration that the Department of Defense should be the lead agency in times of disaster is cause for concern on many levels, not least of which is that for years now, things such as meal preparation for the military in the field have been farmed out to such entities as Halliburton. Not only has Halliburton, as we all know, not delivered all it has promised (including delivering expired MRE’s to our troops in the thick of war), but it has run grossly over its no-bid budget.
This leads me to believe that, in the event of emergency, man-or-nature-made, we will be neither fed nor protected, but we will be shot, since that is about all the army is trained to do now. We will also be broke, as Kellogg, Brown and Root and company cost far more than the typical food stamp allotment would cover.
It seems that a Scare, Starve, and Shoot policy is to be enacted, given the test run in New Orleans.
CMS
Portland, Oregon
27 September 2005
On “What was the British SAS doing in Basra?”
The “coalition” is obviously behind some of the terrorist operations in Iraq. The suspicion of Iraqis has been confirmed. This confirms my personal theories on 9/11 and other terrorists acts. The bourgeois state itself is involved.
AAaI
28 September 2005
On “Court case hits attack on evolution in Pennsylvania”
Is it any wonder Rick Santorum represents this state in the Senate? This is also the original home of Standard Oil and Frank Rizzo. There are many, many people in southern and western Pennsylvania who would love to have been part of the confederacy. Good article.
MC
29 September 2005
* * *If a master mind designed human beings and we humans are created in the image and likeness of our designer, then who is the pattern of schizophrenia—us, our designer or both? This “debate” is a hoot.
LL
Whitehall, Pennsylvania
29 September 2005
On “Laura Bush takes umbrage: Racism and the Republican Party”
You write, “The fundamental social divide that has been laid bare by the hurricane disaster is that of class, not race.” Thank you so much for pointing this out. Failing to see that class is the issue has prevented serious examination of the anti-poor policies of the past 25 years. Those policies—from repealing welfare to creating poverty-wage jobs—have usually been color-blind, and exist solely to benefit the rich, so often at the expense of the poor.
DF
Wisconsin
26 September 2005
On “War protesters tried on federal conspiracy charges in New York”
Thank you for this article. A priest at St. Benedict’s (Central Auckland, New Zealand) made a similar protest. Fortunately without prosecution.
JB
Waitakere, New Zealand
23 September 2005
On “Katrina, the Iraq war and the struggle for socialism”
An excellent, perceptive, thoughtful piece. Thank you. Of course, we must focus upon, somehow, educating people—all people, any people, anywhere. Knowledge is the key, but it’s almost impossible to communicate, isn’t it?
No one who familiarizes himself or herself with what governments actually do, or the way nation states behave at home or out in the world, can possibly escape this conclusion: government as we’ve all experienced it, throughout our lives, is itself the problem. Governments around the world, and especially the US government, are not simply the tools of capitalism, they are capitalism. Shall we expect capitalism to reform itself? And, indeed, how would one “reform” a dangerous bacteria or savage virus?
Those smug, well-heeled Senators and Congresspeople we observe through the TV, are not real people at all, in their official positions. They are Intel and Microsoft and Bechtel and Halliburton and Boeing and GE, all dressed up in suits and business dress, on their way to or from some lootings or sloppings at the trough.
Keep it coming, you guys. And, thanks again.
JC
Oregon
24 September 2005
On a new pledge of allegiance
Dear Sir/ Madam,
After 18 years of living in the US as an artist/designer, I decided to write an alternative pledge of allegiance. If you feel it is inspiring enough for the people, please publish it and let them know about it. Here it is :
I pledge allegiance to the soil
of the United Ecosystems of Earth,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
One symbiosis
in diversity
under the sun
with harmony and sufficiency for all.
HEM
Cairo, Egypt
26 September 2005