Letters for June 21, 2012

Laugh, cry, save the Earth

Re “Laughing” by Todd Walton (SN&R Essay, June 7) and “Sue the government” by Auntie Ruth (SN&R An Inconvenient Ruth, June 7):

I loved Todd Walton’s touching essay, “Laughing.” If your readers missed it, they should read it first before continuing with my comments here.

I was so overcome with emotion after finishing the piece that I spontaneously broke into a laugh/cry, actually chuckling aloud while tears came to my eyes. How fitting was that? I hope this work can find a national audience.

And while I agree—to a point—with Auntie Ruth’s contention that “the environmental movement of today has not seen the violence of the anti-slavery and civil-rights movements,” there have been several murders of environmental activists around the world—people who were trying to protect their homeland’s rainforests and other ecosystems from development and exploitation. Karen Silkwood may also have been murdered for her whistle-blowing.

So let’s not forget the people who have already lost their lives while trying to protest environmental degradation; at the same time, let’s continue to hope that we can save Mother Earth without any more martyrs.

Thank you for your wonderful newspaper.

Janet Mercurio
Winters

As nature intended

Re “Your ultimate summer outfit?” (SN&R Streetalk, June 14):

The suit I was born in!

Trish Russell
via email

Call out bigotry

Re “Just sayin,’” “Just clarifying” and “Just gets it” (SN&R Letters, June 14):

I have been following the debate over Rachel Leibrock’s column “A Texas state of mind” (SN&R Popsmart, June 7). Should the intolerant be tolerated? Should Jews suffer anti-Semites? Should African-Americans suffer racists? Should gays suffer homophobes? All this hatred has been justified with the Bible over the years. The so-called “Christians” who use the Bible this way say that they shouldn’t be criticized because it is a mere difference of opinion. I beg to differ.

In a much earlier life, I spent some time in Texas while I was in the military, and can vouch for the intolerance of the place, although they have probably improved a bit. Maybe they no longer say the N-word in public, but at that time there was nothing lower than a Mexican- or African-American.

But let me say this: If history is a guide, our society cannot and should not treat any form of bigotry as just a mere difference of opinion. The bigots have a right to spew their hate, but they should be opposed at every turn, because, as history has shown, it can and will spiral out of control into unspeakable violence, as we witness every day in the world.

The bigots are a real danger to the country.

Joseph Bruno
Carmichael

Grenade launchers? That’s news!

Re “Sacto’s army” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Feature Story, June 7):

This is a big story about nothing. Anyone can go to the gun store and buy a semi-automatic rifle. The only real change is how many rounds you are allowed to have in the magazine and how you change the magazine. Don’t believe me? Check out any local gun-shop website.

The cops have had rifles for years, and they need them. So now they get some for free; that saves us money. Aircraft? Rafts? Really! That is shocking. This story is someone’s best try of making a story out of nothing. These guns are not special. The grenade launchers are the only interesting thing in the article.

Californians beware

Re “Amazon’s dance” (SN&R Editorial, June 7):

Since you Californians are selling out your state for some quick-fix Amazon jobs, it seems necessary to offer a warning about these jobs (and corporation) that are coming to a town near you.

Have you heard about Amazon’s labor practices? Are these the jobs you want? I worked as a “picker” in its Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, fulfillment center (subject of a major exposé), and it was brutal. I wrote a few stories that can be found by Googling my name and “Dissident Voice.”

Nichole Gracely
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

First, get rid of politicians and priests

Re “God only knows” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Popsmart, June 7):

This continual hyper-religious nonsense is very disturbing. The rich people and politicians use religion to control the population and to distract most people from the real pressing questions of our time. The more civilized countries (there are many) laugh at our provincial thinking, and who can blame them.

They understand the old axiom, as presented by George Santayana in The Life of Reason: “Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute, there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Americans fail time and again, because they don’t understand the true nature of the world and continue to make the same time-tested mistakes. We, as a nation, are undereducated. And which groups are continually cutting education? The rich and the politicians who represent the rich.

Please, remember the words of the great thinker Voltaire: “Man will never be free until the last politician is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”

Michael McAllister
Auburn