We want to hear from our readers. Please submit all letters to the editor through our feedback form , and remember to specify which article your letter is in response to. Letters may be edited for length.
This week you're responding to climates and wars, Wal-Mart's image, the televised left, Iraqi resistance, union-busting, "Bush's" speech, religion and birth control, Bush's incompetence and stem cell methods.
Re: War Climates
Your very readable essay on the causes of problems in the world in the near future (water, crops, etc.) totally ignored Cause 1, which is population. If birth control—naughty, as our government would have us believe—is treated as non-relevant, people fill up the space they have, even after food requirements are met for them. If they know how long it will be before their land is FULL, they can plan their families. Otherwise, we are all through, and that's the road we are now on.
Tony Merz
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The Nobel Prize went to Wangari Matthai for pointing out just what Jeffrey Sachs says in "War Climates"—environmental degradation leads to the conditions for conflict.
Manjari Chatterji
Re: Wal-Mart’s Drug Deal
While I agree the free publicity that Wal-Mart received more than made up for the decreased profit margin that $4 prescriptions will bring to Wal-Mart, I would argue that the point is that Wal-Mart is yet again trying to run all competition out of the marketplace. Wal-Mart can afford to lose money on some prescriptions. The number one problem I see as a pharmacist is that insurance companies will soon follow and only reimburse $4 for a prescription. It will quickly eliminate independent pharmacies at this reimbursement rate. The cost to fill a prescription is more than $4. If we are not going to be reimbursed for our services then what are independent pharmacies supposed to do?
Rick Canby
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The timing of the recent Wal-Mart announcement should also be noted. Could it have had anything to do with "softening" the impact of the "Donut Hole" in Medicare Part D reached by senior citizens shortly thereafter? Of course, launching the Wal-Mart initiative in Florida couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the demographics of that state's population and high voter turnout.......
Tammy Werner
Re: This Television Will Not Be Revolutionized
While what you say, Mr. Cohen, is largely true, you say nothing about the fact that Nation's own David Corn has been appearing on some local DC "pundit" shows and was even on the ABC "George Stephanopoulos" Show recently. So, let's send in e-mails to say, "Bravo!" to ABC for having a "real progressive" on and send other e-mails to remind the other networks that with the coming Democratic Congress, they had better get their "liberal ducks" in order!
Rebecca Jaramillo
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A ray of hope. Katrina Vanden Heuvel has been on the ABC Sunday Morning show a couple of times.
She was great. I loved the interplay between her and George W.
Rhana Bazzini
Re: Talking To The Resistance
This seems like speculative hearsay by someone not actually in the resistance. Moreover, regardless of the sins of the Shia regime and the U.S., there is no reason to believe that most Iraqis want a return to Saddam Hussein, especially the majority Shia. The informant’s claims to the contrary appear to be propaganda or wishful thinking. There would be no benefit to the Shia for a return of the Baathist Party, which persecuted the Shia.
Stephen Feldman
Re: Worse Than Union-Busting
Not only is unionization a civil right, it is a right defended by the Catholic church. Those among us who are Catholic should keep that in mind. Pope John Paul II specifically stated unequivocally that labor unions are “indispensable” for workplace justice, and collective bargaining is just another name for workplace democracy. Unions were seen by John Paul II as the democratic institutions that form a bulwark against the abuse of workers at the hands of either the employer or the state. He was referring back a hundred years to Pope Leo XIII.
So, while the religious right may join in on the union bashing, the largest church in the U.S. ... is on our side on this.
Bob Klahn
Re: A Real October Surprise
Excellent speech. This is worthy of the president as depicted in "West Wing." We need a virtual government existing, perhaps, only on the Internet to keep reminding us that there can still be virtue in government service that serves the people rather than corporate and selfish interests. We must preserve an imagination that can visualize this kind of candor and boldness. Humility can be powerful as long as it is sincere. I'm not sure the current occupant could muster it.
Russell Tyldesley
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This was a well-written speech, except for a few glaring problems:
1. Dubya has never been the president of the U.S. He seized power with a little help from his friends.
2. Rumsfeld isn't the problem. Right-wing racist imperialist policy is.
3. Firing Rummy will only confirm the obvious: The Iraq war is a crime, not a mistake.
4. Bush couldn't write this kind of speech because he can't write, period!
5. The actual problem is beyond policy. It's the out-of-control defense budget.
6. Wholesale firings won't solve anything. We need a new Nuremberg trial with Bush, Cheney, Blair, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and any other criminal who brought us this crime against humanity.
7. A real Dubya letter would include his resignation along with Cheney and the rest of these mobsters. We need to build America all over again.
8. Imperialist policy has to be replaced with a genuine attempt to forge global accords for peace and justice.
9. The Pentagon must be demolished and replaced with a Department of Peace.
10. True democracy must be forged at home before we try to impose it on other nations.
Franklin L. Johnson
Re: The Wafer And The Pill
With regards to the title of your article, it is better to not insult the people's deeply held beliefs, such as my Catholic belief that the "wafer" is actually the Body of Christ. While it makes good spin, calling the Eucharist a wafer is an extremely offensive reference. Surely the excellent points made in the content and spirit of the article deserve a more respectful title.
Patty Kean
Re: Bush’s Way Backward
It's FAR worse than you point out. The president, in his eagerness to propagandize, cannot even get third grade math straight!!
A family of FOUR only has TWO children. How, then, could they possibly lose FOUR $500 "child tax" credits?
"You've got a family of four sitting around the breakfast table, the taxpayers can be sure that their taxes will go up by $2,000: $500 for that child, $500 for the one right there; $500 for this one and $500 for that one."
Santiago Hileret
Re: A Pro-Woman Stem-Cell Policy
Your assertion that "women-centered stem cell research must be unpaid" is just another idealist reason why progressives are losing America.
Going through an egg retrieval is a lot of stress on a woman's body, and women should be compensated for putting their bodies through that stress. Additionally, this assumed idea that paying for the process preys on poor women completely disregards the fact that it is a viable way that poor women can change their financial status by doing something that feels good to them. Helping a woman conceive that can't or contributing to stem cell research seem like some of the best things you can do for (wo)man kind. ...
By giving this a "research" status and taking away the ability to pay women, you are depriving women of a way that they can choose to make a lump sum chunk of money. Considering the strain on women's bodies to go through the egg retrieval process, and the fact that we live in a market economy, what makes you think women would go through that without compensation? And how do you reconcile this with other "medical research" jobs where people get paid to participate?
LaKay Cornell
The author replies:
The compensation issue is only one part of the larger question of safeguarding women who may provide eggs for cloning research. Protecting human subjects from the over-enthusiasms of researchers has been an important shared commitment of responsible medical science at least since Nuremberg. One key standard for participation in experiments that entail risk is "informed consent," meaning that the research subject understands the expected levels of risk and benefit. Cloning researchers are now asking women to undergo risks that are widely acknowledged to be inadequately understood. On the benefit side, expectations for cloning research are speculative and have been astonishingly over-promoted and mischaracterized. This too is widely acknowledged among the researchers themselves. All things considered—and there are many things to consider, including the increasing commercialization of biomedical science in our market economy—paying women beyond reimbursing their expenses takes a bad situation and makes it worse.
Marcy Darnovsky
Associate Executive Director
Center for Genetics and Society
