Send your letters to the Free Press, PMB #178, 1463 ERepublican St, Seattle 98112, or WAfreepress@gmail.com. Please includeyour full name and phone number for verification. Keep them short.Letters may be edited for length, spelling and grammar. Letters do notnecessarily reflect the opinion of the Free Press. Letters which respondto Free Press articles will be givenprecedence.

War-On-Whatever

I recently had theprivilege of reading your publication, and wow! All the things I'mthinking you are printing. that is very refreshing and possibly even alittle scary. I was intrigued, motivated and outraged all at once as Iread through the stories reported in your paper! The article about theSARS scam was right on. It seems to me that it was just one more timelyevent to slow travel duriung a key time in the war-on-whatever. It'sabout time for a war-on-war! I consider myself a POW. The war-on-drugshas captured a front lines infantryman. I'm not proud of my addictionand I'm doing my time. My biggest concern is America's track record withhelping rebuild after they have "won the war." The lack of training orrehabilitation in prison is disheartening at best. When the powers thatbe have decided that I have paid enough for my "war crimes" I will beturned out to a world I am unprepared for. My only knowledge will be ofthe "old ways" and my army of addicts will surely accept me back intotheir ranks. And the number of drug infantry soldiers is growing despiteall the war efforts. Maybe we need a new plan of attack? Thank you foryour efforts in honest reporting and free press. Keep up the great work.And please sign me up for a "prison subscription." And trust me, I'll bespreading the word of your publication to my free world friends andfamily! --Truth Seeker Steven

Deja Vu

"If any singlelesson can be drawn from the past two years, it is the need for greatscepticism in evaluating the statements of an administration that hasshown itself to be unscrupulous in its efforts to manipulate publicopinion into accepting plain aggression in the name of 'freedom'" Wordsin quotation from a Public Affairs Press publication by Edward Herman &Richard DuBoff, titled America's Viet Nam Policy: the Stragtegy ofDeception, copyright 1966 --Jeff vanden Boom

Hungry inIdaho

I am 26 with three kids, attending the University ofIdaho. It seems like a sound system would be one that believes helpingthose who help themselves should be a high priority. Those that helpthemselves are clearly motivated. I have worked from kitchens to pickingup garbage and found that the best way I can support my family is toearn a degree through college. I don't want to live on welfare or evenfood stamps. It makes me feel irresponsible. I do not like to justfreeload. However, I found out that college students need to work morehours and have fewer assets than a non-collegiate to get food stamps! Mymajor is Music Ed, vocal and Instrumental. I'm not out to get rich. [Formy studies] I have to practice the saxophone for Jazz band, marchingband, and personal performance. I also have to practice piano, stringinstruments, and vocal. In all of this, I need to fit in writtenhomework time, family time, eating time, sleeping time, and time forwork of at least 2-1/2 hours per day all seven. Even with all of this,the state requires I work at least 20 hours a week (or make $650.34 amonth) with assets of less than $2000 to be eligible for food stamps. Mycar is worth about $700 dollars, and they have somehow figured it to beworth over $2200! This makes me ineligible for mere food stamps. So,what this boils down to is the fact that I could get food stamps moreeasily if I quit school and stayed at home watching TV and munching onchips, than if I work my butt off to better my life and improve myfamily's life. I am so furious, that while I never swear in writing, Ifind it hard to resist. Please, other readers, let me know how you feelabout this. Then, tell me what actions I can take to change this "malebovine defecation." Thank you, --David J. Koyama, father, husband, andlet down by my country

Bright Tax Idea

I would liketo introduce Initiative 287, which will set the taxable value of realproperty throughout the state at the "last price paid" for that realproperty, and put an end to the county revaluations that raise taxes onsome and not others. Your property is only worth what you paid for ituntil you sell it. I-287 is an Initiative to the Legislature, whichneeds 220,000 signatures by January 3, 2004. For more info about theinitiative, see Paul-E-Wog Press atwww.angelfire.com/wa/paulewog/. --Paul Richards, sponsorI-287

Such a property-tax cap idea has many possibleadvantages for society. For example, retired people are sometimesdislocated from longtime homes because of property tax increases, andthis measure would remedy that. But in a larger sense, capping taxesaccording to the last sales price of a home would generally encourageall property owners to stay in neighorhoods longer. This could improveneighborhood safety and care for neighborhood surroundings. On the otherhand, sometimes in history property values fall, and when this happens,such an initiative could result in the opposite: sell-off of houses andneighborhood disruption. In looking at Mr. Richards' information andinitiative text online, I have to say that although he has a kernel of agood idea here, the actual effects of the wording of I-287 would bequite unpredictable. For such an initiative to succeed and bebeneficial, it needs much more careful drafting.--Ed

Courage to Impeach

George Bush and hisadministration intimidated a frightened nation and spineless congressinto going along with the illegal US invasion of Iraq, a sovereign,third world country weakened by ten years of embargoes. The reasonsgiven, in the opinion of many, were steeped in deceit and lies. Americans were lead to believe that somehow Iraq was responsible forthe World Trade Center, that Iraq was building nuclear weapons, thatIraq had biological weapons, that Saddam was an evil man and that Iraqwas an imminent threat to America. The administration finally settled onWMD coupled with the stated goal of a "regime change". The WTCperpetrators had morphed into one word: Saddam. Now, as "evidence" forthe invasion is unraveling, the administration is desperately namingfall guys and has admitted that the evidence supporting the invasion mayhave been "flawed", but by implication, certainly not falsified. Whatnew fabrications will the administration spin doctors come up withnext? Meanwhile, the invasion of Iraq is costing fathers and mothers thelives of their children and no end in sight. Billions are committed tothis adventure. The youth and wealth of our nation are spilling out onthe sands of Iraq because of an invasion based on lies and deception. What's to be done? We must have the courage to advocate the impeachmentof George Bush and his administration. Go to www.votetoimpeach.org torequest your representative in the House of Representatives vote toimpeach Bush and his administration. Stand up Americans! --HowardPellett

Concerned About Police Violence?

We'rehoping your readers will be interested in knowing about the recentlyconcluded October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality NationalMeeting and associated public forum in Seattle. On July 25th, about100-150 people came to Seattle University's Piggott Auditorium toconverse with an impressive list of panelists in a public forum entitled"Police Brutality Hits You, Too." One panelist, Alisa Bierria ofCommunities Against Rape and Abuse, said most domestic violenceactivists had "sold out" by having their clients call police, who oftenare abusers themselves--as shown by the Brame case (the Tacoma PoliceChief who killed his wife and himself) and the 3-day special report"Badge of Dishonor" (see seattlepi.com/nwsource/police/). NAACP SeattleChapter President Carl Mack brought the house down with his speech. Mackasked, "Who really is the true criminal?.... Our fight is with unlawfullaw enforcement officers... and even those so-called good cops who standby when they see one of those rogue cops do something.... you now becomea criminal with your silence." Our coalition is known for two things: aNational Day of Protest in dozens of cities every October 22nd,and thebook Stolen Lives: killed by law enforcement that documents 2,000 casesin the 1990s. To volunteer with producing Volume II of Stolen Lives, orfor information about Seattle's Day of Protest, contactoct22seattle@hotmail.com, 206-264-5527, or nationally 1-888-NOBRUTALITY(662-7882). --October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, SeattleAffiliate