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A Tip from Texas

Since you folks just had a primary in which one of our local politicians was a candidate, (I refer to young Gee Dubya Bush). I thought it only neighborly, if not downright humane, to fill you in on how we go about selecting and electing politicians in these parts.

Back in the 1870's Texans rewrote the state constitution. The writers were of hearty stock, hard working and suspicious of people who had time enough to go to state capitols and make rules and laws for other folks. As a result they wrote into the document two unique things. One, they only allowed the legislature to meet once every two years for about five months. Two, they gave the top job almost no power, that being the governor. This has worked out pretty well over the last century.

With the legal part worked out there remained a problem: who do you elect and how do you select them to run? Over time common sense and circumstance provided the solution.

Every town and county has a few folks that simply won't or can't buckle down and tend the cows. They would rather party. They go speeding up and down the roads ninety miles an hour in pink Cadillacs with the tops down, tossing empty beer cans everywhere; whooping, hollering, stirring up dust, and depleting the area's armadillo population in the process. What to do with these folks?

The old timers noted that they weren't as bad as horse thieves generally, so hanging was not the answer. Then somewhere along the line one of these knuckleheads got himself elected. Well, it didn't take folks around his old stomping grounds long to notice the general tranquillity that settled in whenever this guy was away making rules and laws. The word got around and now it's standard practice all over this great state to send these characters off to the legislature, commissions, or the statehouse.

Unfortunately we've run out of local positions and must export the surplus to folks like yourselves in other parts of the country. The other reason is some of these characters are such a hazard to the whole state that in order to spread the risk around a bit of being run-over, we hand the guy lots of money and send him out on the national circuit.

All this is dead serious, but just a smidgen of a sense of humor seems necessary when dealing with these folks. I hope this helps in some small way to make your selections.

--E.L. Phillips, San Leon, TX

WTO Opponents Have Stake in SPEEA Strike

Months after the hugely successful demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, unionized engineers and engineering techs shut down technical operations at the Boeing Co. These brave and dedicated workers are trying to curb the power of the aircraft behemoth. They need our help.

Boeing, the world's largest multinational airframe manufacturer and a major host of the Seattle WTO Ministerial, forced out its engineering workers by refusing to provide fair procedures for raises or fund longterm disability and life insurance benefits.

The company is a champion of "free" trade on its own terms, a flagrant polluter and a political bully in national and Washington State politics--invariably writing or bending laws for its own benefit. Boeing is a determined opponent of employee rights: it just settled a discrimination suit by African American employees and is now being sued by Hispanic workers. It refuses to even discuss cost-of-living adjustments for retirees and is notorious for relying on frequent massive layoffs of veteran workers to prop up profits.

Sustained solidarity is the key to building the world of shared plenty and environmental sanity that is sought by working people everywhere.

Call SPEEA at 1-800-325-0811 to offer help. Strike fund donations should be sent to SPEEA, 15205 52nd Ave S, Seattle, WA 98188.

--Henry Noble, Boeing retiree

Flouridation Boosters Busted

Mandatory fluoridation without democratic process Senate Bill 6665 died in committee this session. I want to share with you some of the facts that helped prevent this bill from reaching the floor.

The following information came from a letter written to the US Congress in November 1998. The author of this letter, Gary Pittman, had been a supervisor of evaporation and purification processes at Occidental Chemical Corporation in Florida.

Pittman had experienced more than 20 years of on-the-job exposure to fluorosilicic acid (FSA) the chemical that is widely used in fluoridation systems across the United States. His exposure to FSA left him permanently disabled and unable to work.

Pittman's message in his letter to Congress was simple: that the chemicals used for fluoridation are highly contaminated industrial waste products, and are not fit for human consumption.

Here are a few of the points he made in his letter:

First, fluoridation is NOT a "natural adjustment" of the fluoride levels in our drinking water. Most of the additives used for fluoridation are fluorosilicic acid (FSA) and sodium fluorosilicate (SFS). Both FSA and SFS are highly toxic industrial waste byproducts harvested from pollution scrubbing operations that occur within the phosphate industry.

Some of the chemicals used in the process are also known carcinogens and neurotoxic substances. The fluorosilicic acid solution used for fluoridation is primarily composed of pollution waste that contains arsenic, lead, aluminum, uranium-238, phosphorus, petroleum products, naphthalene, chlorides, and dioxins, to name a few.

For every 6,800 gallons of FSA, 5,800 gallons are toxic pollution. And each batch has its own unique composition.

Possibly many fluorides are created with unique toxicological characteristics that do not readily dissociate in water as stated by the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control.

The EPA says it is safe without any data to back up the statement.

Investigate the facts for yourselves. Fluoridation is indeed a reckless and irresponsible practice. Contact your legislators and convince them also. Not only do we need to stop bills like 6665, we need to eliminate fluoridation from all of our communities, and restore the purity of our drinking water.

--Emily Kalweit