TO THE EDITOR
of that problem yourself instead of asking
that EW be your babysitter.
For the record, I do not find any of these
ads offensive and, for the most part, they do
not even catch my eye. I would like EW to re-
main free and I will respect their right to pro-
cure printing funds from whomever they de-
sire.
Justin Bengtson
Eugene
BLOODY BUSINESS
While I appreciated Bobbie Willis’ obser-
vations (cover story 10/23) about the horrors
of factory farming versus the power that re-
sponsible, informed consumers shopping lo-
cally have to improve the lives of farm ani-
mals, I wondered why (s)he didn’t take the
next logical step and accompany those hu-
manely raised animals to the slaughterhouse.
Surely, if we choose to eat the bodies of ani-
mals killed for our pleasure, we should look
at the whole bloody business. Even well-
raised, happy animals die miserable and terri-
fied deaths and responsible consumers need
to acknowledge that, as well.
Diana Huntington
Eugene
COUNTING THE COSTS
Well, no one ever said running an empire
was cheap. There are so many different costs,
it’s hard to keep track of them all. But let’s try
a little accounting.
There’s the cost in U.S. soldiers’ lives,
over 350 now, including an unreported num-
ber of suicides. Then there are the wounded
soldiers, over 2,000 of them, many of whom
have had limbs blown off, more than 20 per-
cent of them have severe brain injuries. Then
there are those whose minds are shattered by
what they’ve seen and what they’ve done.
There’s the cost in Iraqi lives. The current
estimate is 10,000 deaths. That’s over and
above the U.N. estimate of up to 500,000 pre-
mature Iraqi children’s deaths as a result of
the U.S. and British-driven decade of em-
bargo. “We think the price is worth it,”
Madeline Albright said to Leslie Stahl on this
subject.
There’s the damage to international law
when the U.S. and Britain illegally invade an-
other country. There’s the price to our democ-
racy when leaders lie and two-thirds of
Americans are manipulated into believing.
There’s the loss to our ethical center when we
feel false pride as Americans when support-
ing yet another “just” war. There’s the corro-
sive national cynicism that accompanies
massive theft by war profiteers.
There’s the $166 billion that Congress has
granted for war — above the $355 billion de-
fense budget. There’s the loss to the children
and elders whose lives could be improved
with some of those funds. Empire exacts a
steep price from all it touches, except the
wealthy and powerful, who profit.
Roscoe Caron
Eugene
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SHE’S A
DOODLE!
Driving
Miss Daisy
By Alfred Uhry
Production Sponsor:
Nov. 19 - Nov. 22
Nov. 28 - Nov. 30
Dec. 4 - Dec. 7
Hult Center, Soreng Theatre
Tickets 541-682-5000
Adults $12 - $35 18 + under $12
www.willrep.org
NOVEMBER 6, 2003 7