Thanks also very much for lending a hand with the distribution. It's always great to know that other people care about this paper, and about alternative media in general. In my experience, at some locations the paper is picked up much more frequently than others, often because of the amount of foot traffic. If you are interested in taking a small bundle to the Lynnwood library a few times a year, we would be glad to send it to you.

With regards to the idea about sex-offenders in China, certainly I think it wouldnÕt be legal to forcibly sterilize these offenders in the US, but voluntary sterilization I believe is an option in some statesÑI canÕt say that I know much about the issue, though.

With regard to your question on back issues. Yes, we do have them available for many issues, they are still very interesting to read, and we would ask for a small donation of, say, $2 per issue for sending them to you. If you have access to the internet, you can also see most WA Free Press articles posted in the back-issue archive at our website at www.wafreepress.org .

US Taxpayers Fund Palestinian Heartache

It has been a year since I returned from a trip into the Palestinian refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza and still the images of the disparity and suffering haunt me. Yet, the apartheid wall, which separates Palestinians from their farm land and disrupts their lives in every aspect, still grows like a cancer. The wall has been financed solely by American taxpayers, who shell out over 3 billion dollars annually to support Israel. The total financial aid from the U.S. has exceeded 83 billion dollars, money we could surely have used to lessen the poverty in this country.

While Palestinians are receiving rations of water, Israelis are enjoying their swimming pools in settlements built illegally on confiscated land. The oppression is unceasing, the suffering relentless and the heartache, unbearable. Israel does what Israel wants and nobody is stopping them. What happened to humanity? Has no one learned from history not to repeat the atrocities from which their people have suffered? Why is no one stopping these human rights violations? The refugee camps are breeding grounds for hopelessness and despair and we are accomplices by allowing Israel to dominate.

What has happened to us as a nation? We used to be the most respected country in the world.

Annette Thomas

Convention Misnamed

There may be some propaganda value to calling the Democrat Convention the ÒDemocratic Convention,Ó but it only makes reporters and publishers appear to be ignorant of grammar. Similarly, itÕs the Democrat Party, not the ÒDemocratic Party.Ó Please use correct English. Our youth are confused enough about grammar by government schools without having the media compound their confusion.

Please at least mention that taxpayers were forced to pay for the $40 million Democrat advertisement they call a convention, and will be forced to do the same for the Republican convention farce, lending credence to the erroneous assumption that we have a two-party system. The other parties fund their own conventions where nominations are truly contested. It took three ballots for the Libertarians to select Michael Badnarik as their nominee over nationally syndicated talk show host Gary Nolan and movie producer Aaron Russo. That was a substantive and exciting convention as opposed to the mind-numbing drivel of the Democrat and Republican conventions.

Bill Holmes, Libertarian

Editor's note: If it takes so many ballots to choose the Libertarian candidate, then shouldnÕt the Libertarian Party consider using Instant Runoff Voting in its convention? See IRV-related articles in this issue: "How to Handle Nader" and "IRV Debuts in San Francisco".