Seattle Press on Line - Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Aug 01, 2002 -- Poets for the Monorail

To the Editor:

We have come to a crossroads.

Those of us who are of Seattle, who vote in Seattle, who pay taxes and MVET in Seattle, who stand by our words and our names, know who we are.

We support the monorail. The people, the voters, the citizens of this fair city of Emerald Green, know us and know our actions are not merely words.

Now that the monorail is REAL, now that the Powers That Be, the Builders Of Roads, the Politicians who bleed us dry to subsidize the suburbs, realize that-now they will come, wearing sheep's clothing over their wolf skins, pretending to be Seattleites. They will naysay the monorail. They will lie, cheat, steal-whatever it takes to line their pockets.

We Seattleites, we of the Dream, we of the City, we who are here now, then, and in the future-we shall unmask them.

They will post emails and not own up to their names-because they know that, should the public find out their true identities, they will turn from them in revulsion, recognizing the anti-Seattle wolves that endanger our fair city.

They will send letters to the editor and they shall all but a very few have home addresses that are not in Seattle-because they are not one of us, they are the very forces that attack our city, jealous of our fame, jealous of our foresight, trying to bleed us dry of our resources, of our infrastructure, realizing that if we in Seattle cease to subsidize their wasteful ways they must pay the piper.

They shall fail-for we shine the very light of truth and justice upon their cloaked faces and reveal who they are.

The time approaches for the vote-the time when our allies and our enemies shall be counted-and the only criteria is what they DO, not what they say. There are no "But"s from those who support the monorail-we know that this is a process in which compromises will be made to help all the city and that the final monorail will meet many of our needs, desires, and wants, but not all. For there are as many opinions as there are citizens.

A citizen stands true to his or her city.

A citizen stands for truth.

A citizen stands for justice.

A citizen supports the monorail.

The time of counting has begun, and those who try to pretend they are your allies while sticking the dagger in your back-they are not one of us, no matter how much they doth protest.

Seek the truth. And be not dissuaded by the lies, by the craven misrepresentations of those who endanger our city. Stand for justice and hold true to the shining city of Seattle.

Will Affleck-Asch
my name is my bond
and my city is Seattle

Beating the Loyalty Card System

To the Editor:

Some easy ways to reduce their effectiveness:

1) Withhold information or give false information when you apply for a card. A grocery store card application isn't exactly a sworn deposition. Myself, I like "5216 E Fullerton, Chicago" and "420 Grass Avenue, anywhere."

2) Apply for and carry multiple cards for each store.

3) Every time you're in the store, swap cards with another customer.

4) Always pay cash so that they can't cross-reference your store card to your charge card and banking data. If you find yourself short and you must use a charge card, don't use the loyalty card.

Douglas Campbell

Beating the Loyalty Card System, part 2

To the Editor:

I loved your article "Calling All Shoppers On Grocery Store Loyalty Card" (June 6 issue, reprinted at www.alternet.org). I always suspected this so my crew scanned a loyalty card from Kroger and distributed the same bar code to hundreds of folks. The card works even when it's being used simultaneously! Anyway, thanks for giving me proof so I can distribute more Privacy Plus Cards.

Franklin Lopez

Zoo Coverage

To the Editor:

I wish to thank the Seattle Press for providing coverage of the issues surrounding the Woodland Park Zoo Long Range Plan. Too often news coverage of the Zoo is reduced to a cute animal photo and one line caption. Your paper's coverage (in particular articles by Laurel Holliday) allows readers to understand that the Zoo is a complex organization which is becoming a bellwether for public-private partnerships in Seattle and perhaps King County as our elected officials consider various "creative" ways to supplement tax revenues. The Zoo's growing pains parallel those of the entire City of Seattle. Citizens need factual news coverage to delve beneath the "grow or stagnate" mythology which is used to discredit critics who dare suggest that more is not always better.

Irene Wall

Reader Comments

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Joseph Hrevnack	Oct 05, 2004	Stratford, NJ 08084	Student of the World
A Matter of Ethics I have been following the Bush presidency for some time now from afar and it has become apparent to me that the average American has missed a grave threat to our national security because of George W. Bush being in office. George W. Bushís father was on the board of directors of the Carlyle Group at the same time that members of Osama Bin Ladenís family had money invested in this company and contrary to what has been implied in the media Osama still had contact with these family members in the months directly before 9-11. This is a matter of public record and this corporation had made billions of dollars directly after 9-11 and arguably as a DIRECT RESULT of 9-11. This is the single biggest conflict of interest that has ever existed in the history of our country and it is time that this fact be brought out in the open. We owe this to the victimís families of September eleventh. I am tied of hearing from people in the media that George Bush will be a better leader for the security of our country. If it was not for the above-mentioned business relationships the events of 9-11 would have NEVER of happened in the first place. People wake up and smell the coffee. Bush has done nothing for the security of our nation. He has made our country less safe with a conflict of interest that the history books will show to be nothing less than criminal. Let me put it to you like this: we are supposedly fighting a war against an enemy whose very leader is connected to our president by, at the minimum, two degrees of separation! Every piece of foreign policy that has been implemented in the past four years can be understood simply from what I just said in the above sentence. Why did not the September eleventh commission at the very least mention this possible security liability to the public? The only possible reason would be that they intentionally had something to hide for political purposes. Why has not the mainstream media given this story any mention at all? In the weeks after September eleventh we heard from various news sources that investigative news reporting is just about dead. Does it really take a rocket scientist to understand what they were trying to hint at? To date no one has taken responsibility for September eleventh, Osama Bin laden included. All physical evidence to date suggests that the culprits are anything but Arab terrorists. A plane did not hit the Pentagon, the World Trade Centers did not collapse by burning jet fuel, and the Anthrax attacks had nothing to with Arab terror. All of theses statements are true and all one has to do is objectively look at the physical facts for themselves to find this out. I am not asking you to believe me. All I am asking is that the citizens of this country start asking questions and demand answers and stop getting their news solely from mainstream sources. The laws of physics do not lie! We have been misled by the leaders of our country and if this great nation is going to last in a form that anyway resembles a democracy, we must find out the truth about 9-11. The only absolute that has existed throughout history has been corruption. Should this time period of history be under any less scrutiny? Everyone knows that the world is corrupt so why then when presented with facts that suggest that this corruption might currently be going on in the Bush administration is it automatically branded conspiracy theory by the mainstream media? If the fair and balanced Fox network is so quick to point the conspiracy theorist label then why did they like the rest of the establishment media tell the public that a scenario such as planes being flown into the World Trade Center was never considered? Fox themselves had a prime time show about that very same premise almost six months to the day before 9-11! Why were we not told about this? Why are we not even able to question the official story of 9-11 publicly if there were no truth behind any of this? Are we to trust the people currently in power without question? The only way corruption is able to exist by the people in power is by keeping the general public ignorant. Forget about the greater good of Israel, Forget about ìthe clash of civilizationsî, and forget about A New American Century, it is the truth that this country was founded on and without this, the United States and indeed the rest of the world will not have a future worth living in. It is the truth that will set us free and when a government no longer has its citizenís best interest in heart but that of an elite few, that government is no longer legitimate. I ask you to remember these things come Nov. 2 when faced with the question of whether this administration should get another four years. Sincerely, Joseph J. Hrevnack ìYou can fool some of the people some of the time, but you canít fool all of the people all of the time.î