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There Truly Is Only One Problem To Speak Of...

Having just read your paper for the first time, June/July 1994 issue, there seemed to be enough moot items to warrant some brief comments.
1. (Re: Matt Robesch's article on GATT) I'm afraid that he is fighting the wrong problem. As long as Homo Sapiens keep breeding at the current rate, the environment that is favorable to humans hasn't got a chance. I don't care where you look, whether it be Seattle, Somalia, Canada, China, India, or Brazil... If Matt really wants to do something, he should be getting on the backs of the Pope, Islamic and Protestant Fundamentalists, all the religions of India and anybody else who does not understand the true meaning of the "population explosion" including the ghettos of the world.
2. (Re: Doug Collin's article on Part Time Temp...) Doug's column suffers the same fate as Matt's. Once again, even though the salaries of the high-priced corporate management types are obscene, the wrong problem is being addressed. As long as new bodies into the labor market are being produced at a faster rate than the new job production, you will have a hirer's market and the nature of the beast will dictate a competition for jobs, good and bad, with an "everybody for him/her self" attitude. After all, you do what you can to keep yourself and your family alive whether it be work, steal or sell drugs to other people's children. There are few idealists with empty stomachs and you do not fill stomachs by pumping out more bodies to feed.
You might now understand the basic reasons for the failure of the Union Movement, not as the conventional wisdom has stated (ie: corruption and collusion): Again, more bodies produced than jobs.
If human kind doesn't understand and do something, we will no doubt have a grand and glorious traditional biological "crash" of the species and, believe it or not, Mother Earth will take care of herself very well.
H.M.K.
Seattle, WA

[Matt Robesch replies: What the world needs now is people fighting to fix problems on every front simultaneously. You make a very crucial point. However, I don't agree taking on GATT is "fighting the wrong problem". GATT seeks to undermine democracy which is (theoretically) an institution that allows us to converse on a broad range of topics, including important issues such as overpopulation. Once we confront the issue honestly, overpopulation is an issue that could unify the world. This single issue may spark the paradigm shift that gives us a global identity, for it is something we all have to do something about together, no matter where we live.

The fine folks involved with GATT and the World Trade Organization want to unify the world, but not to solve problems. They want to make the world safe for Coca Cola and Toys 'R Us. What makes you think these global architects won't try and stifle any large-scale discussion on overpopulation? Under GATT, the bulk of the global media could, conceivably, be wiped clean of any mention of overpopulation. Currently there are no provisions in GATT that would prevent something like this from happening.]

Some Constructive Criticism

I respect and admire what you are attempting to do - Seattle definitely needs a paper like yours (whether it is actually willing to support one remains to be seen.)
Two pieces of constructive criticism: one, avoid slagging the competition (or if you must, refer to them in general descriptive terms rather than actually mentioning them by name); doing so suggests sour grapes rather than "media watch dogging." Two, avoid rhetoric - or at least confine it to the editorial page. The converted don't need to be preached to, and the unconverted need to be shown, not told.
One of your paper's great strengths is its classic "follow the money trail" muckraking journalism, (what I like to think of as "Midwest style" journalism). Please keep it up. Have you considered getting your own "900#" section?
Bill Sroboda
Seattle, WA

A Cancellation

I would like my subscription canceled immediately.
You blew it, guys. You need to learn something more about life if you really want to do something progressive for humanity. If you could realize, for example, that life, that art, that love, hate, death are things we must grapple with in life, so much deeper than political movements, so much longer-lasting than economic scandal.
Respect it.
Kurt. Kurt Cobain was his name. Yes, I was very disappointed in how you "cooked" what was left of his image to suit your recipe. It really wasn't a eulogy at all. (Issue No. 9) what disgusted me was your comment at the end of the editorials about (Letters, No. 10) You're making some fucking joke about being compared to USA Today - just a couple sentences after a writer talks of his suicide in an empathetic manner. See it, you probably won't. You'll probably go on feeling quite righteous and above us all (which is another thing I've noticed in your criticisms of the Stranger), but I assure you - I know this - your magazine has one chance of helping those around you. You must not only document man's (sic) economic and political struggles. You must also be sensitive, empathetic, and respectful to his needs as a human being, and the tragedy that occurs when that is gone. That is your challenge.
Matt Vrablik
Seattle, WA

[Editor's note: Point well taken. Sometimes trying to lighten the mood created by an angry reader letter can come off as insensitive. This was not our intention.]



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Contents on this page were published in the August/September, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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