Letters to the Editor/<br>  Free Press Forum

Dear Columbus Free Press Editors,

I recently started thinking about a topic which I had never thought much about before, and I probably would rather not think about it now, however; my conscience will not allow me to disregard what our society is doing to those less fortunate, the people in the low income and poverty economic brackets. The majority of our prisoners are not the ones you read about in the headlines. Statistics indicate that many in these income brackets are of minority races and when they are sentenced to prison, they are the ones most likely to serve a longer sentence. Often, because of what they learn and endure in the prison system they return to prison and the cycle begins. They do not have the tools with which to turn their lives around. In some cases they become hardened criminals and from a selfish point of view it does not make sense to incarcerate people, make their problems worse than they were before entering prison, and then release them into society. This, of course, sets up the potential risk of more and more victims within out society.

Dear Editor,

In looking through the election results for the state I can't find a single race in which the top fundraiser lost. This local pattern reflects a national trend that was apparent in the New York City mayoral race (Michael Bloomberg outspent Mark Green by about $40 million), the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey.

If the top fundraiser always wins then the campaign contributors decide who governs. This is no way to run a democracy. I suggest two changes in how we conduct elections so that the impact of contributors will be reduced.

First, the Board of Elections in each county should prepare an official voter's guide for each election. The guide should be mailed to every registered voter in the county, and in it each candidate should get some space - one or two paragraphs - to make his/her case directly to the voters. Similarly the proponents and opponents for each ballot measure should have a chance to explain their positions to voters. In California the state auditor produces a financial analysis of each ballot measure which is included in the voter's guide.

The last time I was in Selma, Alabama was in 1972, traveling across the South with a group of activists making a movie. (It never came out, which was just as well.) Our group was received with traditional Southern hospitality everywhere throughout the South, except in Selma. We sat down in a café right next to the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge, where voting rights marchers had been gassed and beaten on Bloody Sunday, seven years before. The atmosphere was so thick I had to go stand outside to collect myself. On the street I met an elderly black man in overalls who had worked all his life in Chicago ' 'second worst place in the world' ' before retiring back home to Selma ' 'the worst.' Twenty-eight years later I returned to find the town finally climbing out of that bottom spot.

In Selma, Alabama, there is actually an intersection of Jefferson Davis and Martin Luther King streets. As a spot for a polling place, it asks an obvious question about which way Selma wants to go in the 21st century. The answer, by 57% in a runoff election with a 75% turnout, is Selma's first African American mayor, James Perkins, Jr.

On Oct. 2, members of Hindu Students Council celebrated Mahatma Gandhi's birthday throughout America. When most people think of Gandhi, the first word that comes to mind is "nonviolence". True, Gandhi did inspire a nonviolent movement that eventually led to the peaceful overthrow of British colonial rule in India. But today, Gandhi's approach is considered by many to be overly idealistic.

Gandhi's doctrine of "ahimsa", or nonviolence, is often misinterpreted as a refusal to confront evil. When we understand its true meaning, "ahimsa" refers specifically to nonviolence in thought. Thus "ahimsa" refers to a state of being, and not necessarily to the actions that arise from that state of being.

It is this spiritual approach that allowed Gandhi to lead an effective resistive force against what was the most powerful empire of that era. Nonviolence-in-thought also allowed Gandhi to choose a course of action based on a vision of the future, and not on the emotions or rhetoric of the past. Gandhi believed that evil must be resisted, but with ill will towards none.

As difficult as it is for me to admit, I’m getting old. Some say that our social culture repeats itself about every twenty years or so. If that’s the case I now have to realize that I’m experiencing déjà vu for the second time around. Such is the case when I look at our new form of civil disobedience. You see, I remember the sit-ins and the shut ins. I remember the marching and the social justice rebellion of the 60’s, the me generation rebellion of the 80’s and now the hi-tech low risk civil obedient disobedience of the new millennium. From the hippies to the yuppies, buppies and now techies, it has all been some sort of call for a shift in the social paradigm. Though today’s form of civil disobedience is a far cry from the Montgomery boycott, the march on Washington, Woodstock or hostile takeovers (yes hostile takeovers were a form of rebellion), there are still some vague similarities that exist.

Some of those similarities are best characterized by the “what’s in it for me” mentality. Or rather, “how do I protect their rights before they infringe on my rights” thinking.

Dear Editor:

In the Winter 2001 issue of the Free Press, P. Thomas Harker wrote on “The Scoop on Proficiency Tests.” In short, he disapproved of the present statewide testing system. One of several reasons Harker gave, “Schools cannot mass produce uniform children . . .”

This taxpayer is a proficiency test supporter, of a sort. Accordingly, I’ll offer a different viewpoint.

Most people will agree that, strategically speaking, having a successful public school system is very simple. First, citizens collectively define what the students should learn. And, then teachers teach this curriculum to their students. The purpose of testing is to see if, in fact, the kids have learned the stuff they are supposed to. If not, the students restudy what they missed on the test. Then they get retested. Etc., etc.

To the Editor:

Let us examine the economic downturn in this country as it affects our every day lives. What is the purpose of a recession or depression? First, a laid off worker is more apt to accept a lower paid job when they do find work and the idea is that they will work harder when they do go back to work. Also the people still working are expected to work harder to hold on to their jobs. Then to it makes it easier to fill the low paying jobs that no one else wants to do.

Another fact is the Armed services have been having trouble recruiting people to serve in the military lately. When jobs are more plentiful young people are not going to take up a trade, as quickly, where you learn how to kill people, and then go and practice your skills on the poor people of the world who do not agree with your ideology.

I do not have personal knowledge of the facts regarding an “alliance” between Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan on trade issues. Since I don’t have anything to offer on the facts of this matter, I won’t try to dispute whether such an alleged alliance actually existed. Even if the “alliance” Mr. Bellow alleges did exist, I offer some thoughts to balance the issue.

Seattle was over a year ago. Since then, Mr. Nader and the Green Party mounted the most-effective third-party campaign for President in the 2000 Campaign. This effort successfully marginalized Mr. Buchanan’s own efforts and prevented him from gaining any kind of media attention for this race. This was the most important anti-Buchanan action of the past year. If Mr. Bellow doubts Ralph Nader’s credentials on “inclusiveness” he should read Nader’s speech to the NAACP from earlier this year - it was an incredible moment.

This year’s presidential election is between two men; George Bush and Al Gore. Anyone harboring illusions that any one else, other than these two gentlemen actually has a chance needs to retake high school American history.

Fringe candidate Ralph Nader would have you believe that he has a chance and deserves a place at the table, let alone a second look. There are two main reasons why voting for Mr. Nader is not only futile but counterproductive to the environmental movement. Allow me to explain.

A vote for Mr. Nader is a vote for President Bush/Speaker DeLay

Texas Governor George Bush lacks substantive policy experience both in the domestic and international arenas. He is anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-labor, and most of all beholden to the far right of Bob Jones. How can he be up in the polls? He has two things in his favor this year: money and Ralph Nader. Mr. Bush’s fundraising extravagance is legendary. Let’s talk about Mr. Nader.

This letter was sent by death row inmate Johnny Byrd on Easter to Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church as a desperate plea to help save his life.

Seventeen and a half years ago I awoke to a horrible nightmare. At the young stage of my life – when others my age were dreaming of their futures, I was shouldered with the weight of the world. I became a socially accepted sacrifice. I am an expendable pawn in the furtherance of self-serving political, financial aspirations. I was sentenced to die for a murder I didn’t commit. I have maintained my innocence for all these years I have been held captive in the bowels of society’s murder machine. I have fallen short in the glory of God – but a killer I am not!!! In my battle to show my innocence, I was prematurely placed in the death house only feet away from the electric chair and came within minutes of being murdered by the state of Ohio. I have never been given the opportunity within this deteriorating justice system to be heard. Permitting the crimes that have been committed against me to be whitewashed. Now once again I am facing pending murder, and still I haven’t been heard.