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ARGUMENTS OF WAR & PEACE
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JONIK
Recently a woman wrote to the Oregonian suggesting that President George Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney "want to violate the ABM treaty and abandon the Kyoto
accord" (to build Star Wars and allow increased levels of arsenic in American drinking
water), also that the U.S. has lost its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission, and she
asked somewhat sardonically, "Is the U.S. becoming a rogue nation?"
This is the third issue of the NCTE that local coastal folk have been interviewed
about Election 2000. The questions are the same:
-Do you think the extraordinary election of 2000 was legitimate and fair?
~What do you think might be the consequences of the election?
And as promised before, as long as folks want to answer we will continue to ask.
k
MATTHEW GLEASON
HARRY JOHNSON
(He is an oceangoing teacher inspiring U.S. sailors
about what they might do with the rest of their lives. )
I think if you changed things around a little bit here, a
little bit there, Albert Gore could have been elected President
If Ralph Nader hadn't run it wuld definitely have been Gore. If it
hadn't been for the 'Butterfly Ballot', Gore probably would have
won. If the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court hadn't selected
George Bush by one vote....
It's the way things aligned themselves.
I don't think there will be too many consequences from
Bush's Presidency because I don't think he will be President
after four years. The 2004 election will remove him from office
In the meantime the rich will get somewhat richer, the
poor somewhat poorer.
I have the impression that people don't like Bush very
much People didn't quite like what they saw as the post-election
process ground on and on I think a lot of people changed their
minds
(He is a lifelong Democrat and his parents were
Roosevelt Democrats.)
What has happened in the past few months is that
George Bush is clearly paying off his campaign debts in an
avalanche. Every supporter is getting a lot of money and what
ever else they want quickly — the 'faith-based' services, the tax
cut; eliminating the estate tax, mining and oil drilling, dropping
out of the ozone treaty, stopping federal funding for birth control
and abortion; even the mention of abortion is taboo
Bush's cabinet is filled up with corporate CEOs and oil
people; his Vice President is an oil man like himself. He has
surrounded himself with businessmen, anti-environmentalists
and anti-poor people.
This morning I found myself regretting voting for Ralph
Nader — for about a minute. Then I said "Fuck them!" If the
Democrats want us back they can move back to the left
CYNDY LEE
(She is a member of Sisters of Schlock. She is
pro-choice on smoking organically tobacco and marijuana.)
With George Bush as President a woman might not
be able to get an abortion, but at least she can have a cigarette
after sex.
GREENS REASSESS 2000
CAMPAIGN ATTACKS
DOUG SWEET
(He is station manager of the North Coast's only public
listener-sponsored radio station. KMUN-FM.))
I think the 2000 election wll set Republican Party
politics back a number of years. The GOP doesn't do too well
when they win and now they've got it all. Some Republicans
hope rightwing Republicans wll restrain themselves so it won't
seem so obvious they want to change the USA, but it is obvious
voters will see whether they can hold back or not.
I think it will be real clear in less than two years the
direction we are going. It is very likely the Democrats will take
back the Senate and maybe the House in 2002 — \Miich will
depend on redistricting successes by the House GOP to favor
"They're Tweedledum & Tweedledee!"
We cried, perhaps exaggeratin';
For when they're not, Greens must concede:
They're Hitler & Chamberlain.
/‘T1’ ft
’0* V-*
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-XANDER PATTERSON
LUCY’S
BOOKS
(Co-Chair. Pacific Green Party of Oregon)
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environment by large corporations.
T
We have united to examine the ways in which various eco
nomic interests either enhance or harm the health of de
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Piecemeal reform has been rendered ineffective. We seek
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THINK
GLOBALLY.
SHOP
LOCALLY.
INTERVIEWS BY MICHAEL McCUSKER
themselves as a result of the 2000 Census. I think they will
quickly lose the Senate.
I think the main thing the 2000 election and the first
Clinton election in 1992 taught us is this country doesn't do well
without a two party system. The parties are still cohesive enough
to recognize when one party is splintering and will probably lose
elections, vtfiich the other party will recognize. Third party move
ments tend to give an election to the better organized of the two
major parties rather than have any special impact.
Frankly, I think it is time we worked at developing a
parliamentary system in the United States. It seems to me
it would give voters a lot more control over the democratic
process because there is an opportunity to have votes of no
confidence against the government on a more regular basis
rather than the four years they have to wait. In our current
system we try to do that with mid-term elections.
I think we will see through Bush quickly. All that
campaign rhetoric about "compassionate conservatism."
People are already seeing how this administration says one
thing publicly but is doing something else entirely different.
I don't think this period of Republicans in all parts of
government will last very long. If you look at vtfien Clinton first
won the Democrats had all three branches of government, and it
lasted only two years. I don't think people like all branches of the
government in one party's hands. There is no reason for a party
in complete power to compromise, other than to win an election.
The hubris after such a win as this last election — Bush did wn
all three branches — leads to overreaching. It is what happened
to the Democrats in Clinton's first term and it will most likely
happen with Bush's Republicans.
I think the next year and a half will be rough for political
progressives but I think the Republicans will discover they don't
have the power they think they do. Progressives will push harder
than ever to challenge their power.
The Christian right seemed much less visible the last
election. I don't think they've lost power in the GOP but they
have lost credibility with most people who see it as a pulpit for
the Republican Party, including a lot of Christians I know who
are getting tired of the church being used politically. It is one
thing to say you are a moral person, quite another to claim that
only Republicans are moral — to politicize one's own religious
beliefs and force them upon others as law and mandate.
THEDA SPRACKUN
(She works with victims of domestic abuse at the
Women's Resource Center in Astoria. She is also one helluva
a singer.)
Since George Bush took office in January — and I mean
took — I have had a sense of inner uneasiness. During the past
eight years, under Bill Clinton, I didn't feel this way. I believe this
to be significant criteria for discussion, despite the fact that
coming from a feeling is no longer very valued today.
As I hear things on the news, this uneasiness becomes
stronger. Issues I and many others have worked hard and heart-
fully on are taking giant steps backward under the Bush regime.
State programs are losing funding for many social reforms that
are just now showing positive long-term results. Social work
programs that under Clinton gave us room to work with the poor
or uneducated from the inside out face going back to simple
repeat bandaging programs.
These moneys, it now appears, wll now go back to
funding the fighting games that many little boys who are now
grown up have not grown out of.
Since Bush's takeover, new research has magically
popped up that says that maybe children really aren't that
damaged by domestic violence. There is a new tax exemption
WHY I DO NOT DO E-MAIL
Friends, colleagues and family have been amused
and/or exasperated by my agnosticism toward the electronic
revolution in communications. Certainly a word of explanation
is in order
Contrary to speculation. I am not a technophile
I carry a Toshiba laptop for word processing and writing
projects between separate work stations at home and at
the beach. I am convinced that computerized word processing
dramatically increases the quality of writing because it makes
it so easy to edit and change.
Like most people, I view technology as a useful tool.
Yet if modern civilization has taught us anything it is that tools
must be made to serve their masters instead of enslaving them.
Somewhere the line must be drawn between those things that
enhance our existence and those that clutter or obstruct it.
I have decided to draw that line at e-mail, partially to
avoid unwanted communications from university administrators,
partially to avoid unwelcome solicitations from strangers, and
partially to avoid time-consuming messages from people who
could easily leave a voice-mail message via telephone or send
a note through the U.S. mail.
Anytime one draws a line of distinction, there are going
to be obvious drawbacks and perhaps even cases where one
makes "an exception to the rule. " Yet it's sometimes important
to draw that line I have chosen to draw that line at e-mail. I
apologize to those inconvenienced by my position. Hopefully,
there are redeeming qualities to my personal transactions that
may encourage forgiveness.
-DAVID A. HOROWITZ
David Horowitz is a professor of history and piano, the
former at Portland State University, the latter accompanying
jazz singer Dory Hylton as well as solo in the Pacific Northwest's
better saloons. He and his wife Gloria Myers commute between
their homes in Portland and Arch Cape