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Letters from our readers

 

On “CAUS denounces police murder of Aiyana Jones

 

I remember attending a class at Wayne State University and my lab partner had a terrible odor. I finally figured out that she must have been living in a place without water. Truly, there are other insidious effects of living without utilities which can cause significant morbidities. How many have eaten rotten unrefrigerated food?

 

John S
21 May 2010

On “Lawsuit filed against Detroit police in killing of Aiyana Stanley-Jones

 

Ms. Peters,

 

A very apt analysis of the official capitulation to the Detroit Police. While I do not live in Detroit, I go there often for work and social reasons. While conditions have been horrible for city residents for quite some time, I must say that there seems a palpable air of tension that I do not remember at any time before. This has not, of course, found any expression in the local media outlets. I think it is very well known by city officials that they face a veritable powder keg in the city; unemployment is well over 50 percent, and the closing of public schools, transportation and health services has been correctly interpreted as the latest assault from above. The illusion of political representation at the state, local and federal levels has been utterly discredited. The situation mayor Bing finds himself in with respect to the Police Department is very comparable to the one that President Obama finds himself in with the intelligence community. He knows that they essentially hold a veto on his administration, as they possess the means to destabilize it and render it a historic catastrophe. Obviously, this represents the end of democracy.

 

Mike T
Michigan, USA
21 May 2010

On “Thousands pay tribute to seven-year-old murdered by Detroit police

 

What really needs to be focused on here is the empty and rotting factories and vital infrastructure in Detroit that could be used to build wind turbines, but isn’t. The question of why there aren’t tens of thousands of factory jobs created every year in the exciting and progressive areas of wind and solar energy is left unanswered. I have another few questions for the people of this country.:

 

1. When was the last job which paid living wage with benefits and insurance created in the neighborhood where this child was murdered?

 

2. How do people, who need to pay rent, eat, get around, and provide for their children do so when jobs do not exist and are, in fact, prohibited from being created by the anti-green oil monopoly and the people who are beholden to it?

 

3. Why are there never-ending supplies of money and resources and weapons for the police and prisons for the people they target, but no money for public transit, tree planting, sidewalk repair, infrastructure, jobs programs, public health programs, family planning, schools, clinics and other basic necessities that these areas are lacking?

As long as the oil companies are running the Oval Office and politicians work solely in the interest of donors, I can assure all of you that there will be no green revolution, no high-speed railway, no end to the wars, no end of offshore drilling, no break with authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and no progress whatsoever in the social equality of this country.

 

PK
25 May 2010

On “George Will: a pompous defender of wealth and privilege

 

Thanks for your excellent evisceration. It brings to mind his Y2K column in which he made a remark to the effect that he didn’t understand why no one but him had thought to mention the greatness of Feudalism. I’ve just spent some time looking for it at Newsweek and The Washington Post to no avail. I wanted to send it along to you.

 

Yours,

Michael M
Maine, USA
23 May 2010

On “The profit system and the BP oil catastrophe

 

Thank you for your excellent quality of writing on the gamut of subjects. I especially appreciated today’s article about the BP oil catastrophe. Keep doing your good work. It is so desperately needed.

 

Remember to love yourself in it all,

 

Wooly wishes,

Eliana
24 May 2010

On “Michigan teacher pension ‘reform’ attacks public education

 

These are very dire times as today’s issue shows. I feel myself unable to post exclusively on the hideous Michigan system since the same type of assault also involves New Jersey and Middlesex University mentioned today. Many would scorn such “alarmist” notions involving any mention of an attack on the working class and the growing recognition that the middle class is also under attack by an assault on any type of education that informs intelligence as well as subject matter involving alternative ideas of Marxism (God forbid!) and the Enlightenment. The recent Texas Board of Education victory will undoubtedly stimulate other regressive forces.

 

In the enlightened state of Illinois some key Democrats have come out with a policy of hideous cuts affecting Medicare, education, and other essential services while refusing to consider the progressive income tax suggested by the defeated candidate for Governor here. With Democrats such as these one does not need Republicans! I’ve read on other sites that Fascism (aided by that recent example of the Know Nothing/Do Nothing Chicago windbag in the Oval Office) may soon dominate the USA. If that happens we will all face a very different version of that Robert Anderson play (filmed by Vincente Minelli) Tea and Sympathy, where we will have plenty of tea (poured out by Sarah Palin) but no sympathy. Mobilization against this ugly prospect is now more essential than before.

 

Tony W
24 May 2010

On “Obama’s financial reform bill: Wall Street breathes a ‘sigh of relief’

 

“Only a very naïve individual, a political idiot, or an editor of the Nation magazine..." I laughed.

 

AC Castro
25 May 2010

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