Letters to the Editor

If you can't beat 'em ...
BY JOE CONASON
(11/30/99)

The activists in Seattle are not the ones to lecture on what "fair trade" should mean in this world. What they are protesting is an unaccountable organization that further shifts the balance of global power into the hands of multinational corporations. Sure, an enlightened WTO is a dream worth striving for, but its present incarnation is unacceptable. Until the public understands this there is no hope for true "fair trade," and without the activists, there would be little hope for public understanding of the issue. That is why we must stand with the protesters in solidarity -- an uncommon occurance in today's leftist circles.

-- Michael Lambert

Joe Conason's commentary on the WTO smacked of usual anti-U.S., anti-business rhetoric. He doesn't appear to take into account that we, in the United States, have a higher standard of living then anywhere else, or that workers in this country are the safest anywhere. Though he probably thinks it was luck that put us here, it was in fact a free market with less government intervention than anywhere else in the world.

Conason asks, "How can market forces and technological progress be directed to serve humanity, instead of enslaving humanity to markets and technologies?" The fact is that progress has always served humanity. Conditions have never taken a step back because of new technologies or market forces. The standard of living has only improved in free markets.

-- Shane Hanson

Everything you need to know about the WTO
BY DAVID MOBERG
(11/30/99)

Reporting on world trade talks discusses everything, it seems, except world trade. If it were so obviously one-sided as so many articles suggest -- if our national interests were in labor rights and sea turtles -- why do we even participate in the WTO or NAFTA? The fact is this: Import duties and tariffs create a deadweight loss that can be measured. If we have to pay a higher price for goods, fewer people will possess those goods, fewer will be made, fewer persons employed, fewer paychecks exist to buy other products -- it is a detrimental cycle that ripples through the entire economy.

-- Michael Gordon

The WTO turns the entire concept of representative government on its head. Any system that places such enormous power in the hands of a few non-elected arbitrators is ripe for abuse. Recent hisory should provide a sobering reminder of what happens when a judiciary is exempted from political oversight.

-- Paul Goodman

The whole world is watching
BY L.A. KAUFFMAN
(11/30/99)

L.A. Kauffman gets it wrong by stating that nonviolent protests in Seattle are rooted in the anti-nuclear protests of the 1970s. The roots of nonviolent protest began much earlier: In the United States, the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 1960s featured nonviolence, for instance; and the organizers of those protests used Gandhi's nonviolent methods as a model.

-- Michael Lieber

A tale of two marathons
BY STEVEN A. SHAW
(11/24/99)

Steven Shaw throws out broad statements like "Many obsessive runners are victims of either exercise addiction or fitness (aka non-purging) bulimia" with no research to back it up. To say that "most" of the women running were "anorexic and unappealing" is irresponsible and mean-spirited.

Anorexia is a serious disease. It is not a word that should be thrown at women who happen to be thinner than society's "norm," which is overweight. And to call these women "unappealing" is just uncalled for. As a group, female runners are strong, focused and determined people who ought to be lauded for their accomplishments -- raising children, working, going to school, maintaining a household and still finding the time to train for a marathon -- and not belittled by someone standing on the sidelines.

-- Rosemary Brewer

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