Letters to the Editor

I've been on an angry-letter-to-the-editor kick for a while now. here are a vew of my favs:

Responding to yet another Katherine Kersten Triber:

http://www.startribune.com/local/14849326.html

Wait, so Keith Ellison is endeavoring to create a "Department of Peace and Nonviolence" in our government? Well hey, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea, despite Katherine Kersten's fears of becoming a placid Norway. In fact lets stop picking on Norway and look at the larger history of WW2. Simply put, after WW1, Europe wanted accountability(a nice way of saying revenge), and Germany was punitively impoverished. So a whole generation of people grew up looking for another world war, which they got. After WW2 the U.S. implemented The Marshall Plan. This time, ALL of Europe was included in the reconstruction. Less poverty leads to less angry Germans which equals no more WWs, just more VWs. Meanwhile our president G.W.'s war is approaching 500 billion, with 196.5 billion proposed spending for 2008. Did I mention the fast rising over 235 billion dollars we will be paying in interest for military spending? That's twice as much, inflation adjusted, as we spent on all four years of the Marshal Plan! Check the facts People!
Look, no one is saying that neutrality and isolationism is the way to go. Its just that the two options of neutrality and military action aren't working anymore. Besides, for something to be neutral, doesn't there have to be something on both sides of it? We've tried military action, so what about PEACE ACTION. I'm not talking about stuffing daisies down gun barrels here. I'm just asking people to imagine what a Department of Peace could do with just a sliver of our military spending. For starters, How about programs to eliminate world poverty? You see, when people are brought out of poverty, they lose their reasons for wanting to kill you, and religious Zealots lose their recruiting power, terrorism subsides. I'm not saying that we should abolish the military, but I'm tired of cutting off Hydra heads and sitting on teapots. For my part, Peace is the only rational course we have left. In April the U.S. Government will be spending close to half of your federal income tax on war related expenditures. I'd like to see a little spent on peace.



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heres one i wrote the sw journal after reading one too many blasts directed at our local Hooter/Hollerer:

Goodness gracious I've read some discouraging letters to the editor recently regarding your columnist Jim Walsh. And well I just have to throw it back that Mr. Walsh's columns are one of the main reasons i pick up the SW Journal from time to time. For me, Opinion/OPEX pieces are the heart and soul of any paper. And it always irks me whenever i come across such despondency as people protesting a paper by tossing not only the OPEX pieces, but also everything else the paper has to offer. To combat this demeanor I'd like to submit that articles like these, written by Mr. Walsh and your other fine writers, are also a part of the nervous system for any publication. For nothing can alert us to the pains and concerns of our community quite like an OPEX article can, and suppression of them is just journalistic vicodin. Moreso I'd like to put forth that the relevance for including such articles in a small community paper are very much justified as we are less likely to see and read them in larger, more corporately owned, don't-do-anything-to-upset-the-shareholders type publications.
So in closing i'll ask that you keep publishing the opinions of folks like Mr. Walsh as well as those who disagree with him. I just hope that more of our SW residents will refrain from sticking thier fingers in thier ears. Keep the pain killers in the medicine cabinet folks, even when your journal stings you.