PAGE 3
NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , JULY 2003
supreme, but the joke’s on us and the blood still on our hands
until we manage to reflect equally the nurture side of nature
throughout our systems of politics, religion, education, econo
mics, law and government.
NANCY MONTGOMERY
I feel like I’m learning more about the subversion and
hidden agendas of our government than ever before — the
secrets kept from us, the information buried and manipulated.
And it’s scary. I feel like a dupe.
The American people are dupes. We placed so much
trust in our government, so we don't know how to think or watch.
And we don't.
Those who do think or watch are looked upon with
disdain and implicitly regarded as unpatriotic because they
are rocking an already sinking boat and say nobody can be
complacent, but people don't like that.They want to believe that
Bush believes in God and is doing the right thing rather than
worrying he is a puppet for Dick Cheney and the corporations.
They don’t want to know he is a highly paid figurehead.
I am kind of stunned that the stuff I hear doesn't make
the front page news or TV —stuff that never comes out because
it’s not tasteful, happy or the corporate party-line.
My dad says there must be a reason for Iraq. He doesn’t
buy the reasons he hears but he's sure one will come along that
makes sense to him.
And I asked him, “Why do you believe that. Why do you
trust it?"
He said he didn’t know.
That’s what gets me. This blind trust. Why don't we
believe the Bushies base their policies on dark motives? That
power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But people don’t want to believe that.
ELIZABETH MENETREY
In my younger days — a couple of weeks ago — I was
so agitated about Iraq that I decided the Bush administration
was evil. But now, after this process I’ve gone through, I realize
they are businessmen, with no foresight, wisdom or compassion.
They have no deep insights or thoughts except profit. They don’t
think of children or the future, or of the coming generations.
We expect our elders and leaders to think about these
things. Perhaps these businessmen think Armageddon is close
and they don’t care about the future. But their lack of thought
about it is deeply shocking.
I think the media are doing an astonishingly poor job of
letting people know about what is going on. I thought it was bad
when Reagan was President, but it’s worse now.
One of the jobs of a community radio station (She is
program director of KMUN-FM) is to give people information
and help them reach out to each other. People need to feel
empowered, that they are not alone, that there are many others
like them who feel very strongly about what is going on in this
country, as education, care for our elderly and environmental
protections are being demolished.
I am hoping that more and more people will come out of
their numbness and feeling of being overwhelmed by the events
of 9/11.
RICHARD JOHNSON
Your desire to interview me and get my thoughts on the
current status of things in Iraq, has stirred up in me a level of
'grappling' I’ve not experienced in quite some time.
I backed away from being quoted by you because often
my initial responses to questions in such moments may not
fully or even wisely address the issue. Certainly I wouldn’t care
to be presented in print in any other than my true mind. So I
deferred with the promise of getting back to you.
Well, after considerable thought applied to your
question, I am frankly unable to form an opinion regarding the
business of the U.S. occupation in Iraq and the status of things
there. And I must resist the strong temptation to flail about with
things I may think about it, when in fact I know so little of the
truth.
What I do know, however, is I am exceedingly unsure,
even distrustful of this administration which seems to me to
be further opposite in spirit, style and position than my own
sensibilities and what I hope is good judgment, than most other
administrations in my memory.
There appears to be a huge lack of honesty, integrity,
forthrightness and credibility in our international dealings. There
seems to be a good amount of impropriety and misdeeds, and
plain wrongheadedness that's gone on, gamering tremendous
disrespect and opposition around the world. I find this deeply
disturbing. And I’m sure our diplomats and leaders have been
very guilty of double-dealing and betrayal which I know under
mines support and goodwill. After all, we are all human, and
when we behave poorly individually or as a nation, there is
always a cost.
I fear the U.S., in spite of all the good and greatness
we are about, is behaving rather poorly all too often, with
illegitimate agendas, and we're seeing backlash to this all the
time. It seems to me we are not going to the heart of many
matters with wisdom and prudence. I frankly question our
intentions, certainly our methods.
And to have so much of who we are as a nation
steeped so much in militarism, with the huge dominant ethos
of capitalistic corporatism, seems to doom our good old USA to
¿SEL
Bikes & Beyond
1089 MARINE DR.
ASTORIA, OREGON
FRANCES JETTER
a fate I shudder to contemplate. This truly defies my personal
sensibilities. The precedents being set, the conditions being
created are extremely unsettling to me. And when one
considers the enormous amount of money and power behind
all this, it leaves me mentally paralyzed when I think about it.
I struggle every day to loosen my cynicism, set aside my
displeasure, and somehow try and keep a sense of optimism
and be of good cheer in the face of so much that seems so
wrong.
My gut, my instincts, the facts as I know them in a
limited way, all point to a general set of conditions I am horribly
pessimistic about to the core of my being. Do I have any
intelligent opinions about Iraq and the status of our occupation
there? I’m afraid not.
If the question were asked, ‘Are we as a nation running
amok?’ I would have to say it sure seems so. What can we as
citizens do about it? In the short term, maybe changing admin
istrations in November 2004 would be a good start. From there,
maybe a better informed, more proactive citizenry could pro
duce change for the better. Maybe too, we need to reinvigorate
our collective understanding and commitment to fairness, truth,
liberty and justice for all, in this home of the brave and land of
the free. We may also want to become better students of
history, so we may exercise better judgment in the present.
PATRICIA LONGNECKER
I think I have more questions than answers since we are
in Iraq to glean more than repair.
It’s no different now than when the whole thing started.
We don't know any more than we did before.
We know it's all about oil and who can make the most
money. It won’t be the American people, and it won’t be the Iraqi
people.
The war in Iraq was wrong but I’m still in flux because I
don’t know the truth. I was against the war before it began and
I’m against it now.
Remember Bishop James Pike? He said that when he
read in the newspapers how many American soldiers were killed,
and how many Vietnamese soldiers, it was just so many people
who died It’s like driving past a traffic accident. It doesn’t mean
anything unless it’s somebody you know. Otherwise it’s just a
statistic.
I live just up the street from the Astoria east mooring
basin and for years I have grown to live with the sea lions. From
early on, my family dubbed them “the Republicans of the sea.”
The reason is that they take one bite out of each fish and leave
the rest to rot.
But I must ask all you fishermen, isn’t our present
government doing the same as the sea lions? Taking one big
bite out of each of us to fund themselves and leaving the rest to
rot We are facing a dire and difficult situation. We must find a
way to solve this debacle.
CHRISTOPHER GRANT
If or when I have grandchildren and someday perhaps
at junior high age one would ask me what happened or why
we went to war on Iraq — and mind you the elder and junior
Bushes’ agendas at that point will seem synonymous — I will be
compelled to explain something complicated in simple terms;
“Because they could and get away with it, and there was
a profit in it for the people who had the power."
By then this might make sense in a country where being
on top will long have erased any notions of reasonable or justifi
able cause for war on moral or defensive grounds.
STEPHANIE STERN
What do I know about the war in Iraq, or any war?
I am 23 and live in the utopia of Astoria. My generation’s only
connection with war is TV and we relate it back to Hollywood.
My very first day as a TV reporter was 9/11, and I
watched it on television. I didn’t have any emotion, nothing to
connect it with. It was like watching a movie. It wasn’t until I
went to Ground Zero that I was able to connect and understand
people’s lives were drastically changed. Before that it was just a
TV program.
It’s not that I’m uneducated or not schooled in history.
It's just that what we’re taught is so watered down I'm not
prepared to reach or connect.
I have been paying much more attention to the Middle
East, to people in the background instead of the people the
cameras film running around with guns. I see that they wear the
same kind of clothes I wear and that's a fact that makes it a little
more realistic. We shop at the same stores, but when I leave the
store I go to my Mazda. When they leave the store they dodge
shrapnel. In the shadows our lives are not much different.
I feel the government hides things from us. It might be
to our benefit; some things we should know and some things we
shouldn’t in regard to our safety. I have difficulties coming to a
decision because I don’t know enough because of this lack of
information.
So I pray for the safety of all those involved — the
Iraqis, the Americans, and everyone else — that they have
enough information to be safe as we all go through this ordeal.
JO ANN HALVERSON
AFTER WAR
Here, over bloodstained
craggy barren soil
the tattered banner waves,
high above the final
battlegrounds,
where hundreds slaughtered lie
in eternal sleep,
their blood tinting the dirt.
Anyone would be obtuse if they didn't know by now the
real reasons for the war in Iraq.
It reminds me of when I was a teenager and my mother
said I couldn’t go out with a bunch of boys but it was okay if I
went with the girls. So the girls would come and get me and I
would go off with the boys. The war in Iraq is exactly that kind of
deception.
Does the rest of the world respect us more for what
we’ve done in Iraq?
Are we safer now?
The banner flies
held up by the wind
witness to desolation
until time itself
tears the fabric remnants
from the pole
and everything crumbles
to dust.
-MARGIT BOWLER
Margit Bowler is 14 on August 9. She wrote this poem
two years ago, and it appeared in the July 2001 NOTE
“Th* bosf Italian nttaurant bofwoon San Francisco < SoaMfo."
-JONATHAN NICHOLS. THE OKEGONIAN
The bost Italian nttaurant In Astorta, •v»rT
-RICHARD FENCSAK. THE DAILY ASTORIAN
1149 COMMERCIAL, ASTORIA
(503) 325-9001