MAIL

ACTUAL LETTERS
FROM
ACTUAL READERS




Fiscal Democracy

I was raised to believe that I lived in a popular democracy, defined as "one man (person), one vote." As I've grown older I've come to see that this is not the case - I live, in fact, in a fiscal democracy, that is "one dollar, one vote." There is no other way to explain the current state of affairs.
Bill Gates finishes up his $50 million-plus house and shares front page headlines with the World Food Summit. The Summit declares that those without food are on their own. Bill couldn't have said it better himself. I'm sure the phrase "my house is too big" has never even entered his mind. It's his money, damn it, and he'll do what he wants to with it. Meanwhile, Bill's old friend Paul Allen is holding the city ransom with a football team. And something called the "Stadium Task Force" is determining where to build the new stadium that the voters voted down but are going to get and pay for anyway. This new stadium will cost at least six times as much as Bill's house and probably a lot more by the time all the secret deals are paid for. It will have a retractable roof. The old stadium, whose roof was retracting by itself not long ago, will be dealt with as soon as an appropriately expensive plan of action can be designed.
With all the front pages and the mountains of dollar signs involved you would think we were dealing with something important like AIDS, or world food supplies. But football? Bill's house? In any truly sane society these people would be relieved of some of their obviously excessive accumulations and the wealth would be spread around to those most in need. But I suppose that's another place and time.
At the end of the piece about the World Food Summit, officially despised Cuban President Fidel Castro was quoted as saying "It is...the external debt, underdevelopment and the unequal terms of reference that are killing so many people in the world." He's right, you know.
Bill Gate's house, Paul Allen's football team.

Jim Page,
Seattle



See related Gates' Mansion article:
"House of Bill" (WFP Issue 20 February/March 1996)

And stadium related articles:
"Field of Schemes" (WFP Issue 19 December '95/January 1996)
"Professional Sports for the Professional Class" (WFP Issue 21 April/May 1996)


WFP Good, RTA Bad

Dear folks,
You are doing the Puget Sound region a great service in publishing the Free Press. I long ago canceled by subscription to the Times, so you're the only local paper I get. Keep up the good work.
A couple of further thoughts, though. There are two weaknesses in your presentation that must be noted. First is the tendency to support, beneath your hard-edged investigative coverage, the kind of soft yuppie liberalism promulgated by such mavens of mush as Walt Crowley (can you say, "Seattle Weakly"?). His unabashed promotion of RTA and other big-ticket reformist programs belies the much more radical agenda which our situation calls for. Anyone familiar with the work of Amory and Hunter Lovins knows that boondoggles like RTA support primarily suburbanites, developers, and the contractors, lawyers and money people who put together such projects. More car pool lanes and busses, along with rethinking our need to "be there right now" would do more for transportation needs than RTA will ever do.
Second, you tend to trash "Christians" under the guise of right-bashing. Sure, take the requisite shots at the Craswells of the world, but don't ignore the fine, ongoing, Northwest tradition of radical Christianity. Whether the historic work of Ground Zero's resistance to the Trident submarine (where's Crowley & Co. on that monstrosity in our living room?), the Church Council's long-standing fight against racism, xenophobia/homophobia and other issues, or the newly formed Puget Sound Faith and Resistance's upcoming Advent campaign on behalf of Iraqi children killed because of U.S. corporate greed (don't be fooled into thinking it has anything to do with Saddam), there are many stories waiting to be told. That includes, by the way, Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center's quarterly journal (free for the asking), A Matter of Spirit, now in its 8th year of analysis and commentary from a Catholic perspective on Northwest social issues. I happen to be the editor of that rag, but you can check it out for yourself by calling IPJC at (206) 223-1138 or e-mail at IPJCNW@aol.com.

Shalom,
Wes Howard-Brook

Editor's Note: Thanks for your comments, but we strongly endorse the arguments presented by Walt Crowley in his op-ed piece, "It's Time to Stop Waiting for the Interurban" (WFP, Nov-Dec '96). We fail to see how the Puget Sound can be the only major metropolitan region on the face of the Earth to meet its transportation needs with buses only. Sentiments about "rethinking our need to 'be there right now'" are fine for those of a politically-aware and reflective nature, but the fact remains that without transportation alternatives in place, Middle America will continue to accelerate its use of single-occupancy vehicles. Buses become snarled in traffic and do not offer the speed and reliability that pulls people out of their cars. And if you think that HOV lanes will get people to carpool, take a cruise down I-5 during rush hour any day.

As for the charge of Christian-bashing, we do not attack Christianity as a whole, but only those elements that represent political intolerance and that use religion as a vehicle to dupe their followers into adopting an extremist political agenda (most recently: "The Craswell Capers" WFP Nov-Dec '96). If we spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the Christian right, it's because those folks represent an insurgent movement that is increasingly dominating Christianity. We welcome the formation of a counter-movement, and are open to accepting articles from those trying to get the word out about old or new movements on the progressive side of the religious divide.

[Home] [This Issue's Directory] [WFP Index] [WFP Back Issues] [E-Mail WFP]

Contents on this page were published in the January/February, 1997 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1997 WFP Collective, Inc.