Response - #18 Oct/Nov 95

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Milk is Gross

I just wanted to point out that all the talk about rBGH (Issue 17 and Issue 14) seems to miss a very important point. We don't need rBGH to make milk unhealthy, unnecessary, and environmentally unsound. Milk is not wholesome food, whether it's tainted with hormones or not. Please don't let this become buried in your advocacy for "pure" food. Our dependence on milk and meat contributes to disease (cancers, osteoporosis, adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc.), cruelty, and environmental devastation on an almost unimaginable scale. Don't encourage people to seek out "pure" cow milk. Encourage them to stop drinking milk.

Thanks.

Ben Grossblatt

Hey, We Also Slam Carlson

Regarding the "unwillingness or inability of other Seattle-area columnists to take on this darling of the 'liberal media,'[John Carlson]" alleged in the August/September "Carlson Watch": The Weekly has already differed. Here are two shots at Carlson I found in a glance at old "Quick & Dirty" columns. [Ed. note - In one of those columns, Carlson was tagged as "the Seattle media's token conservative-who-speaks-in-complete-sentences."] There have been others, including Rick Anderson's lengthy discussion of Carlson's - and The Seattle Times' - ethical conflicts over his coverage of his own "three-strikes" initiative.

Eric Scigliano

Seattle Weekly

Public Stadium

I have been listening to and reading about the Mariner/Seahawk/Kingdome/ new ballpark issue, and I think I have a solution. Our civil, political, and business leaders tell us the only thing standing between winning professional sports teams that make a profit and will commit to staying in Seattle is the lack of good facilities. Let's assume that is true.

The owners of the teams say that if the taxpayers do not meet their demands for new facilities, they will sell or move the teams. Let's assume that is also true.

The solution seems obvious. The taxpayers should buy the teams. Set up a Public Development Authority to control 40 percent, form a players' cooperative to buy 20 percent, sell the last 40 percent to the fans through a public offering and/or voluntary surcharge on the cost of a ticket. (The home town fans consumer's cooperative?)

I see several advantages to this plan:

It eliminates the threat to move the teams.
We can take the time to make a rational decision on how, where, or if to invest our tax money in new facilities.
This new ownership will allow all the sports fans who have watched the Mariners consistently fail and the Seahawks spiral downward to participate in the running of the teams other than by shouting at an unresponsive TV.
Taxpayers who are not sports fans will be inclined to support efforts to make the teams profitable because it will lower their financial obligation.

In the long run, I see a profitable, well-managed, cooperatively owned professional football and baseball operations able to support other non-revenue generating projects.

First Priority for the profits? Build the Seattle Commons!

Sincerely,

Daniel J. Norton

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Contents on this page were published in the October/November, 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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