Letters to the Editor/<br>  Free Press Forum

Did anyone notice that another year is gone? It just sailed by like a light breeze, a little warm, but nothing hanging on, nothing substantial.

Two-zip-zip-two was a hell of a year for me. The breeze that brushed against my psyche knocked me over, knocked me down and then picked me back up again and sailed me off on another adventure.

What I remember…

Well we have been on the verge of war now for more than a year. Just how stressful is that to us on a daily basis? I mean we don’t really talk about it, oh maybe occasionally but if there was research done, what effect does it have on us on some sub-conscious level?

Money and politics form the basis of the average Upper Middle Class Suburban High School. Money has always equaled power. When it comes to judging, all that seems to matter to people is whether you have it or not. The fact is, the more money one has, the higher the chance of fitting in. Money can even be it’s own parameter in establishing cliques.

While fitting in is probably one of the biggest pressures felt by my peers, especially females, it isn’t on my list of things to deal with on a day to day basis . To some, high school is all about “status”. Conformity is what everyone is seeking. Without the right clothes, cars, or friends, it’s quite hard to establish one’s “status” in the “popular” group. On the other hand, there are those who seem to strive to be the exact opposite of a “conformist”. Some students buy into the idea of being different just to prove that they are above the pressures of fitting in. This kind of person is no less a sell-out than people who do whatever they can to prove they are part of the in-crowd. No matter where one is in the conformity spectrum, it’s all based on the same people’s standards.

When I joined the Greens it was 1991(or some time around this date) because of the value system the Greens were working on at the time. The Ten Key Values is what made me believe that this movement can succeed where others have failed. Why did I feel this way? Ten years of Voodoo and Deep do-do(Reagan and Bush) had bushed me to the brink of just tunning out everything having to do with baby boomers and their fucked up way of avioding socail responsibility for screwed up policies. The generation that had seen the coming of age of several movements pretended for all of the eighties and part of the nineties that the issues of racism, gender, and class were the burden of some "others", but certainly not theirs. There is alot more I could go on about but the point is that in the mist of all this madness the greens looked a whole lot better than what was currently available.

Some resent the term "class warfare," but what a great description for our headlong rush to war with Iraq: Class Warfare. Ask yourself, "Who will benefit and who will pay?"

While there is no evidence of a connection between Iraq and Al-Qaida, there ARE many indications that war with Iraq will energize Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Why would anyone want that?

Plans were prepared for a war with Iraq BEFORE the attack of September 11. How could those plans result from an act of terrorism which had not yet occurred and which, by its own statement, the administration could not have anticipated?

If America's goal is to protect Iraq's neighbors, why are all its neighbors except Israel against the war? If our goal is to protect the larger world from a mad man, why has the rest of the world been so loath to support us?

Disturbing details of the US-led War on Terror have emerged recently. These details continue to expose the complicity of our anti-terror allies: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. First, the Congressional report linking Saudi funds to terrorist activities further shows the two faces of Saudis in the US-led War on Terror. Then, as reported in an article in NY Times, Pakistan's proliferation of nuclear technology to North Korea in exchange for North Korea's missile technology questions Pakistan's shadowy role as a front-line state in the War on Terror.

The North Korea - Pakistan nuclear nexus is a major threat to the international security. By allowing Pakistan to continue proliferation of nuclear weapons technology to North Korea in exchange for missile technology, we may be undermining our own security as well as that of our democratic allies, namely, South Korea, Japan, India and Russia. Communist China, which borders both Pakistan and North Korea and has been known to supply key weapons technologies to both her rogue neighbors, has been an active participant in this game of deception.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following letter was submitted in response to an article in the Fall 2002 issue of the The Free Press: Questions that won’t be asked about Iraq.

To those of you who for whatever reason deem yourselves holier than thou, I am going to answer some of your questions. I don't expect you to read this and doubt seriously if you would understand it if you did. Liberals always ask questions that they really don't want answers to, but here goes. Let me preface this that I am a 50 yr old male and consider myself as a conservative, not necessarily a republican, and these are my opinions. Oh, by the way some of my answers are questions that I am sure no self respecting liberal has the integrity to answer!!!

1. Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War>> No we did not bomb them because we knew it would lead to virtual destruction of civilization

2. which just confirms that there is no real threat?>> What leads you to claim there is no threat?

"Oh dear father, I shall avenge your failures. I shall put thy name back in the graces of the powerful and wize writing in the black ink that fuels the fires of passion."

Sounds like some Shakespearean Gothic introduction. It appears to be what we are going through as a nation at this time. The son of the Bush is desperately trying to set his legacy right and in-between that we had the immoral and decant antics of Slick Willie. Come on, admit it, we are missing those times a little right now. Slick Willie was a lot of fun.

It's historic that Georgie Boy has been able to capture the house, the senate and get Carte' Blanc from the Untied Nations. The man is completely unstoppable. Or so it appears at this time.

Walking back to my car after a rally calling for peace at the Ohio State House on Saturday, I walked past a spot where only a few days earlier a distraught man sat in his van with a gun to his head surrounded by police. From what I understood of that situation, it sounded like the guy was at the end of his rope, in need of help and aiming a gun at his head on election day was the only way he felt anyone might listen to him. The only way he felt he had left to amplify his voice and be heard. It was his own private anarchy against a system he felt had wronged him.

Many people spoke on Saturday from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and emotions, all trying to make the same point- the Bush Administration must be stopped. With such diversity taking the stage, everyone there could find a speaker who touched their conscience, their soul, their heart, their mind. Another voice that echoed their individual thoughts and feelings on our country's disastrous situation and reenforced "I am not alone," "I am not crazy," "I am not unpatriotic or un-American to be here."

Not long ago I happened to be listening to one of our local radio call-in programs discussing that interminable subject known as Iraq. While calmly absorbing the myriad of comments flowing over the airways I was suddenly taken aback by one of the most ill-considered utterances yet to have emerged. One of the callers drew a parallel between the Saddam Hussein of today and the Hitler of the 1930's and contended appeasement is no way to approach the former in light of what occurred with the latter. I could hardly believe my ears. Apparently that benighted soul needs to re-enroll in History 101 because he missed some blatantly obvious facts. Let's recount some history. Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 and 3 years later in 1936 he remilitarized the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and in direct defiance of England and France. Although the latter two could have taken military action they decided to appease the Nazi appetite. Two years later in 1938 Hitler decided he would take Austria, again in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, and Britain and France sat on their hands.

To the editor,

While the legal struggle to save Dysart Woods might be immensely complex, the current situation is simple: those who value our last .004 percent of remaining ancient forest in Ohio need to speak up fast or it will be gone. Please try to attend an upcoming public hearing at 2 p.m., Wednesday May 15 in Belmont County.

Ohio Valley Coal Company (OVCC) has pending permits to mine all of Dysart Woods and its watershed with longwall and room and pillar mining. Dysart Defenders’ expert hydrologist and forest ecologist both say this would be disastrous for the old growth forest and would take away its uniqueness of being a remnant original forest that can be studied as a benchmark for what used to cover 95 percent of Ohio.