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ACTUAL LETTERS
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ACTUAL READERS




Congratulations

On behalf of the Washington Doctors Ought to Care (DOC) I want to express my congratulations on your July/August issue. Both the cover (a very clever rendition of a Camel advertisement) and story, "Light Up. Be Cool. Drop Dead." were timely, hard-hitting, and provocative.
We also applaud your decision to not accept tobacco advertising. In support of your efforts I have enclosed payment for a one-year subscription.

Rachel Grossman,
Executive Director WA DOC,
Seattle


New Crispness?

September/October is the first Free Press I've seen in some time and I'm glad to be back. I noted a new crispness. But then changes often are not in the other but in ourselves. Another man who played a major role in saving the world, though his forte was mostly limited to wars,-Sir Winston Churchill-at least apocryphally said delivering a long speech was easy, anyone could do it, but a short speech requires hard work. It was once my trade in kinder days. I still have respect for the well chosen word or finely turned phrase.
And there is a fresh wind too, of the Galilean "street person" and "wandering sage," a man more at home with aphorisms and stories than the high theologizing attributed to him. And this is no newer than the thoughts of Thomas Jefferson. A saying attributed to G.K. Chesterton is that we've had Christianity around for 2,000 years and no one's got it right yet! - except in this decade of exclude-alls and know-it-alls!

Wesley D. Johnson,
Seattle


Restore Tenants' Rights

[Last Issue's cover story included a plea for readers to send a letter to Seattle Mayor Norm Rice (see "Action Needed"). The following is a copy of one such letter sent to the Mayor and to the Free Press.]

Honorable Mayor Rice:
This letter concerns the reduction of funding concerning tenants' rights workshops. During this harsh time of change in all societies, when family values are now at an all time low, and when the homeless now include mothers with children, a cutting of funds in this area will indicate to all disregard for the citizens making up the jurisdiction you both govern and serve.

I once had a taste of living in your downtown Seattle proper. Having been forced due to financial circumstances to occupy a tiny efficiency apartment in a complex on Stewart Street back in 1990, I was shocked to discover that the entire building was infested with non-rent paying cockroaches by the thousands! A once-a-month bombing held them at bay for a few days.
There was also a unique situation with the manager who would surreptitiously enter a tenant's apartment and upon leaving, there would be a fresh large bleached white spot on the rug, smack in the middle of the room especially if the tenant was moving. This automatically dictated a bill for damages being offhandedly given to the tenant.
My disgust reached a new high when I and several others were told by the manager that he wished he could enter each and every apartment during the night, and shoot every SOB!
Tenants' rights workshops are a necessity.
The times of Dickens are still a reality for many human beings no matter where they live. It is still the haves and have nots, plus the almighty dollar that is really our national religion as never before in our so called Democratic Society. Start thinking about the average human being who is the foundation of all societies, and not the monied interests, and create a balance.

Dave Stern
Seattle


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Contents on this page were published in the November/December, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1996 WFP Collective, Inc.