From our Mailbag 04/28/02 - 05/21/02


by YOU

THE WORLD - From Josh R., Middlesex, CT, USA:

Subject: The Middle East Conflict

Your writer Wolf De Voon has a lot of courage. My hate is off to him. Keep up the real alternative reporting!

A New Reader Who'll Be Back!
Josh


From Ric W, Austin, TX, USA:

Subject: Whoa, Daddy!

Depriving a man of economic survival is just as heinous of depriving him of immediate physical survival, as far as I'm concerned.

Uh...excuse me?

Death can't find you a new job, pal. Death doesn't allow you to walk to the next parish.

These kind of moral liquidities you bathe in allow you to claim pornography is rape, fiction is conspiracy, thought is deed. This is the kind of uniformity the fascists/preachers/ayatollahs advocate. This is the fundamentalist philosophy that does not distinguish between art and life, between secular and religious law, between fantasy and reality. It is the kind of thinking that allowed the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan. That allowed Miller and Joyce to be censored. That allowed lynching of black men for even looking at white women. That says there is only one way to be human.

There are qualitative and quantitative differences in behavior. Spitting in your face may piss you off and be a heinous act, but shooting your face with a 12 gauge is an entirely different act. Both are acts of disrespect, but one allows for negotiation and forgiveness and reconciliation. The other forces us down the long bloody road to revenge and promises years or generations before reconciliation may occur.

I appreciate your anger. But you walk a slippery slope when you take this one size fits all moral attitude. It is the worst of American imperialism and the worst of fundamental righteousness. Your Abrahamic roots are showing. Monotheism and its modern manifestations of egoism (me-ism) and absolutism can be a philosophical black hole that leads to the One Wayism that is the root of so many of the problems you purport to despise. Be very, very careful. Here there be dragons.

you have just entered a thinking zone

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ROD RESPONDS: Depriving a man of economic survival is just as heinous of depriving him of immediate physical survival, as far as I'm concerned.

P.S.: I think Gandhi said it before I did: "The worst form of violence on earth is economic violence."


From Gail B, Salt Lake City, UT, USA:

SUBJECT: kindah/sortah

You wrote:

" I've kindah/sortah reconciled myself to this 50 Thang,...."

and I reply... "yeah! RIGHT!!!" and even if you haven't, can you do anything about it? LOL

Now.. here's a question for you: "do you *feel* any different than you did 3 weeks ago?" (over and above having caught up on your sleep)

50 is a NUMBER and that's all it is.

And think how much you have learned in the past 25 years. Would you *really* want to be 25 again?....

I'd go back to 45... or 50... those were good years (well, except for the divorce)... but then... I really have to stop and think-- "I'm NOT 50 anymore, but I don't feel any different than I did then, except for the gimpy knee." but this year is good too... and next year will be better.

Hehehehehe... and it's only 15 years til you reach 65! (how's that for rubbing it in!)

gail in Salt Lake City


ROD RESPONDS: Gail,

Thanks for writing again! You are such a card!

Actually, I do feel different *psychologically.* I think that had to do with getting up the gumption to saying "Enough is enough!" with my boss jerking me around over the raise, for instance. I also think I'm a bit more fearful about my own impatience, the decisions I make, where I'm going with my life. Not that I wasn't say, three months ago, but now its becoming a constant harbinger.

I have serious doubts I'll make 65, so consider yourself among the lucky ones, my dear.

Best,
Rod


From Artcamp SC de RL, Taxco, MEXICO:

Subject: We are glad you are back Rod

We are glad you are back Rod. greetings from Taxco del Alarcon Guerrero Mexico

please do not fail to read and consider the letter we wrote in response to Standing Bear's attack on us.

http://www.artcamp.com.mx/pages/standing_bear.html

please honor us Rod and read and look at what we have to day then answer me back will you friend

thank you see you later,
Celia and Tonantzin


ROD RESPONDS: Celia and Tonantzin,

Thank you very much for sending this! I shall provide a link to this page in my next update of the magazine. (After I put up my lecture for the students in Yugoslavia.)

I have a personal question: What is the weather like in Taxco in July?

Peace and Prosperity to You,
Rod


From Charles C., (No City Provided,) USA:

Subject: Disaster Math

Editor of G21 -

I read your article on the math of disasters and war by Carlos Salazar and have to say that I found it another depressing example of how Americans are now obsessed with expecting bad things since 9/11. I for one am tired of all the doom and gloom that is projected from all levels of our society.

Surely there are better things to think about then when we'll all be destroyed.

Just my two cents.
Charles


From Lori P., New Orleans, LA, USA:

Subject: The Sex Column

Hi Rod!

Loved the column on your website, www.g21.net!! Keep 'em cummin! I must admit, though, when I read the first one, it made me a little angry. It's probably a reflex, being that I am a woman and all and we're supposed to get angry when men talk of ornament chicks and trophy wives in a positive way. I was also a little intrigued so, I read two of the previous columns. Midway through the second, I began to appreciate your tongue-in-cheek style. Checking a person's genetic predeterminations for illness is purely Darwinian so, I can appreciate what you said, sort of. Also, being the Bad Bitch I am, I've experienced the pampering and special attention sexy women get.

I am a little concerned, though. You never mentioned brains (or lack of) in your Darwinian checklist.

Sure, everyone wants healthy offspring but, if the woman's a jackass with the brainpower of a soggy tuna sandwich, who's going to wipe the drool from your beautiful children's faces when they're nine years old? Who's going to help them learn to spell their names, again? I guess it won't be you.

You'll probably be on to the next 'conquest'. Don't worry, we're waiting for you....

Lori P.
36-24-36

MORE STUFF Folks Think We Need to Know

From Ric W., Austin, TX, USA:

Subject: Bush and the polls

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0204.green.html

One of the most dependable poll results is that people don't like polling. Clinton used polling to craft popular policies, Bush uses polling to spin unpopular ones---arguably a much more cynical undertaking.


From Darryl C., Hershey, PA, USA:

Subject: intractable foes, warring narratives

http://www.msnbc.com/news/730905.asp#BODY


From "Diamond D", Middletown, CT, USA:

Subject: HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DEMAND WARS IN EASIER-TO-FIND COUNTRIES

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DEMAND WARS IN EASIER-TO-FIND COUNTRIES

They Ask "How Come No One Fights in Big Famous Nations Anymore?" Washington, D.C. (SatireWire.com) -- A delegation of American high school students today demanded the United States stop waging war in obscure nations such as Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and instead attack places they've actually heard of, such as France, Australia, and Austria, unless, they said, those last two are the same country.

"People claim we don't know as much geography as our parents and grandparents, but it's so not our fault," Josh Beldoni, a senior at Fischer High School in Los Angeles, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Back then they only had wars in, like, Germany and England, but we're supposed to know about places like Somalia and Massachusetts."

"Macedonia," corrected committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan. "See?" said Beldoni.

Beldoni's frustration was shared by nearly three dozen students at the hearing, who blamed the U.S. military for making them look bad. "I totally support our soldiers and all that, but I am seriously failing both geography and social studies because I keep getting asked to find Croatia or Yemvrekia, or whatever bizarre-o country we send troops to," said Amelia Nash, a junior at Clark High School in Orlando, FL. "Can't we fight in, like, Italy? It's boot-shaped."

Chairman Levin however, explained that Italy was a U.S. ally, and that intervention is usually in response to a specific threat.

"OK, what about Arulco?" interrupted Tyler Boone, a senior at Bellevue High School in Wisconsin. "That's a country in Jagged Alliance 2 run by the evil Queen Deidranna. I'm totally familiar with that place. She's a major threat."

"Jagged...?" said Levin.

"Alliance. It's a computer game."

"Well, no," Levin answered. "We can't attack a fictional country."

"Yeah right," Boone mumbled. "Like Grenada was real."

The students' testimony was supported by a cross-section of high school geography teachers, who urged the committee to help lay a solid foundation for America's young people by curtailing any intervention abroad. "Since the anti-terror war began, most of my students can now point to Afghanistan on a map, which is fine, but those same kids still don't know the capitals of Nevada and Ohio," said Richard Gerber, who teaches at Rhymony High School in Atlanta. "I think we need to cut back on our activities overseas and take care of business at home, and if that means invading Tallahassee (FL) or Trenton (NJ) so that students learn where they are, so be it."

"I've always wanted to stick it to Hartford (CT)," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. "Oh sh*t, is my microphone on?"

The hearing adjourned after six hours. An estimated 2,000 more students were expected to hold a march in the nation's capital, but forgot which city it was in.


From "Diamond D.", Middletown, CT, USA:

Subject: Peace warriors

http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,681238,00.html

thought you might like this...

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