TO THE EDITOR
My request to you has two parts: My first
choice: that you no longer use objectifying
photos of women who are the subject of
columns or articles (such as Dar Williams,
who is lying in a prone position with a blank
expression, in a “sexy” low cut spaghetti
strap dress), and that you no longer accept
any ads for phone sex, peep shows, escort
services that use sex to advertise, topless
clubs, strip dancers, etc.
My second choice: that you no longer use
objectifying photos for articles and columns,
as above, and that, if you are not willing to
stop taking sex-industry advertisements, to
only run their advertisements with no photos
or with discreet photos of women with real
expressions on their faces, like they have
their own feelings and thoughts and are not
just there on display as someone else’s toy!
I think you’ll agree that sex is fine, nor-
mal, and healthy, as long as it’s consensual
and aware, and not made into an industry.
That’s where it tends to go wonky, aye?
Greta Loeffelbein
Corvallis
PULL OUT ALL STOPS
Although EW seems to portray Terry
Tempest Williams as a kind of guru (“Coffee
Talk,” 5/8), I wasn’t particularly impressed.
She is simply repeating what everyone is al-
ready saying. She says of America, “This is a
democracy in the fullest sense.” No, it defi-
nitely isn’t.
The Bush administration is not just hap-
less, misguided or mean, they are deliber-
ately creating this chaos. They use words like
“democracy,” but every chance they get they
destroy the English language. They have the
utmost contempt for democracy. No matter
what they say, if you want to know what their
true policies are, follow the results. In the
end, the rationales will be forgotten while we
endure the reality.
Sitting at the dinner table talking about the
issues, as Williams enthusiastically suggests,
won’t help much; those in power have
planned this and are already 10 steps ahead.
We simply must take power back, we must
destroy their authority and we must reject
their legitimacy, utterly. People are hoping
the 2004 election could do the trick. After
Florida, Bush and Co. have allotted billions
of dollars on making the voting process com-
puterized, private and corporate. The will of
the voters will not be accurately counted. It
wasn’t before, and it’s sadly naive to hope it
will be next time.
It’s not just this country and its citizenry
that are under direct attack — it’s the whole
world. Time to start thinking 10 steps ahead.
There is nothing less than the survival of the
human species at stake. Time to pull out all
the stops. Forget about being polite.
David Caruso
Eugene
NO DEEPER CUTS
It’s no secret that Oregon’s schools are in
crisis. Many of us in the education commu-
nity support reductions in tax breaks as a way
to recover revenue for schools and social
services. By reducing tax credits by just 25
percent, it is possible to recover $1.7 billion.
MAY 22, 2003 5