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NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , DECEMBER 2001
PATRICIA LONGNECKER
I think anybody selling anything patriotic should donate
the proceeds to everyone affected by September 11.
I’ve seen auctions where people donate to benefit the
families of September 11.1 think that's a good idea and it is
definitely in the Christmas spirit, but everyone needs to be
aware of where the money is going, like the Red Cross' original
divergence of money donated for September 11 survivors and
victims’ families.
DEAC GUIDI
Capitalism does not equal patriotism.
JUDITH NILAND
I don't buy it.
LEE MILLER
My parents lived through World War 2, the last war
to be conducted according to the U.S. Constitution. My uncle
Clair survived as a platoon sergeant during the island hopping
campaigns in the Pacific. When this conflict began, the nation
was still in the grip of the Great Depression. The folks at home
were forced to ration necessities, and were encouraged to spend
and consume less, the only true and reasonable response to a
national emergency.
The encouragement to spend during wartime has the
ring of deceit and hypocrisy. Either we are in a deadly struggle
which calls for forced rationing and personal thrift, or this “police
action" isn’t as serious as the politicians and media portray it.
I feel that the military action in Afghanistan is as uncon
stitutional as previous undeclared wars. If Bush had gone to
Congress on September 12, 2001 as FDR did on December 8,
1941, for example, new laws would not be necessary to try our
enemies by military tribunal. This would eliminate a lot of leger
demain, both in regard to the Constitution and the economy.
DEBORA CONN AWAY
Patriotic shopping’ tags the most vulnerable because
the people who have no other satisfaction in other areas of their
life try to find it through accumulation of material goods.This
society doesn’t provide a sense of safety or sustenance; it does
not fill that deep hole in the psyche.
You don’t have a job that pays enough to allow you to
live your life in satisfaction— so if you have to struggle, why not
satisfy your needs short-time with 'Master Credit’?
Credit is pre-approved; it will take about 20 years to pay
off this Christmas.
I walked into Lloyd’s Center in Portland and walked right
back out. It was filled with a mass of confused lemmings.
We all buy into it. It’s like a sucker bet.
PATRICK KEEFE
All I can say is buy locally.
I shop in Astoria.
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SHARON KLAUSER
It’s just scary. A person wants to show love for family
and friends and that they care. Now it’s like a rule of society:
shop for America, not for family or friends.
Down in Baja California where I often live, Christmas is
a very different thing.The people celebrate several weeks before
Christmas. There isn’t a lot of money spent, but they sing and
dance. I talked to a priest. He said he talked to people about
9/11. He said the war coming down to a religious thing between
Christians and non-Christians is very frightening to people in
Mexico. He said Americans might be big jerks as to how they
project themselves in the world, but the Mexican people think
we are their jerks and they are taking it personally.
This pre-Christmas flagwaving frenzy of buying gifts and
somehow mixing politics up with religion is disconcerting to me
because this is a very secular nation but also very spiritual. We
are confusing issues in a way that is not necessarily something
you can get your mind around and hold onto. It is more a scat
tering of our energy rather than a gathering together.
I feel we should regain a level of calm and reverence for
what Christmas is about. Instead we are making Christmas into
something like political jingoism.
I find it much better to make gifts or buy them from local
artists and artisans.
‘HIPPY’ JIM HEDFORD
Albert Einstein said: “A majority of the stupid is invincible
and guaranteed for all time The terror of their tyranny is only
alleviated by their lack of consistency "
I use this insightful observation into human nature often
when confronted with society. In terms of the specific question
regarding the separation of church and state in a capitalist
society, I don’t think there is one We are allowed to choose but
we are not allowed to participate, otherwise we are labeled non-
patriotic atheists. Consume or be consumed. I think it is depicted
well by the Jesus fish eating the Darwin fish Beware of smiling
predators bigger than you.
JASPAR DEVEREAUX
I think world patriotism comes before American patriot
ism. America consumes around 40% of the world’s economic
resources. There is no need to spend, we ve already spent
enough.
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I’ve never been a shopper. I could never afford it when I
was ygung in the 1950s and '60s, when it was the norm. I never
got into the habit.
There is so much garbage coming from abroad that
shopping has become a pastime Americans don’t care what
they buy It’s like Disneyland: it’s just for recreation. It does not
matter what you get, the family is entertained It’s just a question
of how many plastic bags you take home
Since World War 2 we have been schooled that people
need jobs so that they can buy homes and everything else for
sale The Gl Bill made it possible for war veterans and their
wives to live in the new suburbs without a down payment.
We became conditioned to believe that it was important
to support your own economy, which was a major part of the
Cold War When credit cards appeared it became patriotic to
incur heavy debt The trend was to spend, go into bankruptcy,
reestablish credit and do it all over again.
Everything has snowballed We are being deluged
with inferior products from abroad as a result of switching our
manufacturing overseas, and our own production has never
been known for high quality consumer goods. Now American
corporations like Nike have figured they can pay somebody $2 a
month to make stuff in places like India where enslaved orphan
kids are treated like chattel 14 to 18 hours a day They don’t go
to school. They work long days and get tired and don’t tie off the
end tuft in the rug you buy.
People aren’t aware of how the economy is changing
It has to do with NAFTA and the New Age China Trade. Nike
can go overseas and pay nothing to make tennis shoes and sell
them for $100 in this country. American corporations are making
fortunes on overseas slave labor You can’t bring people across
borders but products made by the same people at slave wages
cross them every minute.
I contend that the problems with NAFTA can be solved
with equitable salaries in all three countries (The USA, Mexico
and Canada), which would solve our own production problems.
The emphasis has to be put on quality rather than on quantity.
The capitalist theory is to sell the most at the least cost. If we
switch production to quality goods we don’t have to make as
much stuff to make a profit and also pay good wages.
Communism and Christianity both promise prosperity.
Christianity after you die as well as when alive. Communism
promised that the state would make everyone prosperous but
only on this side of the grave.
DISSENT & DIVERSITY
There is nothing so frightening as a nation without
dissent, particularly one that boasts of its great diversity
and freedom There is never a more fitting moment for
dissenting voices to speak up than a time of national
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emergency. The entire benefit of diversity is.that it gives a
plethora of creativity, reasoning and options to draw from.. a« j;
It is a supermarket of ideas and possibilities that we should
not ever lock up, yet alone in a time of trouble. The idea that
a few Americans can think more creatively and generate
better solutions than 400 million Americans is the kind of
attitude one expects in a dictatorship, not a republic.
It is the President’s job to execute the will of the
people People have a right and even a duty to speak out
so their representatives can represent them and the govern
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people can
geton with its job.
Everyone who loves freedom ought to be outraged
that anyone’s First Amendment right would be censored or
attacked, for if one attacks the freedom of speech, one cuts
at the very trunk of liberty.
-MICHAEL MILLER
THE NEW SEASON
Last summer’s rich blackberry vines
Trail in the mud of alley rain.
It is the season of grit and thorns
Catching at whatever happens by,
Giving back nothing but our own blood
It is the season of flood and tears.
Nothing is ours, nor has ever been
Flesh ripped from loving flesh,
We hear the rattle-song of war.
BIPOLAR DOGMATA
THEY
Fighting against is to enter
the other’s arena of facts
where THEY have long entrenched
and fortified the boundaries
and mined the field.
THEY have claimed privileged access
to highest power on heaven and earth
-ELIZABETH HOBBS
THEY have claimed to be agents of
highest power on heaven and earth
THEY have claimed this anoints
them with infallibility to:
dictate human behavior
take human life
make war
use all means to their ends
Their belief system/fact fortress
is virtually impregnable,
their arena a place
to be crushed and die
Their belief in their
Infallibility makes it so:
THEY are one of the most
Powerful forces on earth
THEY are the fearful and deadly
human collective thought
GROUP-MIND entity
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M 11 I ) I I r;
radio
It feeds and is nourished by
those who are against
its arena of facts
O.E.D.
VALERIE LINDHOUT
Downtown