DEMILITARIZED

So Portland is allegedly one of the more patriotic cities, yet as a veteran I have experienced more anti-military hippie a-hole backlash than anywhere else I’ve lived [“Inside Starbase Portland,” Feature, July 15]. I do not think this program is innocent of recruiting either, but there is at least some benefit for the kids. It is bullshit like that [that] at times almost makes me regret I served eight years as a Marine.

-posted by the Showstopper on portlandmercury.com

STOP THE GEE-WHIZZING

Starbase is recruitment budget money [“Inside Starbase Portland,” Feature, July 15]. Do you think that comes without an agenda? Showstopper and others who immediately curse and label those who are opposed to recruiting elementary school children really make our case for us. We don’t want our children to turn out like that. Those who would allow the military to take little kids out of school to get gee-whizzed by killing machines are products of the same culture, usually, and want even more. Military contact with grade school children is a sign of a rapidly deteriorating, militarized society, one that becomes more coarsened as it finds itself waging war after war, honoring the warriors and calling the nonviolent ones naïve. As for the military being the reason we are all free, tell that to all the peoples who were victorious with nonviolence, including women, who won their vote despite military members beating them in the streets of Washington, not because of the military. Yes, you can say that white males owe their freedom to a violent American Revolution, but that was before Gandhi showed a different way. Can we please start to REALLY educate our kids?

-posted by Tom H. Hastings on portlandmercury.com

LESS NOT GO THERE

Too “libertarian” for me [“Meet the Queer Patrol,” News, July 15]. Who do you expect them to call when they apprehend the perpetrator of a hate crime? Or are you suggesting setting up a court system and prison in the back of the Red and Black [Café]? If you pay taxes you should be working WITH the police and FORCING them to do their jobs. The [police bureau] isn’t going to disappear if people opt out of the feedback process. I’ve lived in Texas for more years than I care to remember and am VERY familiar with the “guvment is corrupt so less jus pretend it don’t exist and/or quit payin’ taxes” line of reasoning.

posted by Bed Time! on portlandmercury.com

POD PROVENANCE

As one who lived very, very close to the original Hawthorne “pod” from well before its inception throughout its first couple years, I feel obliged to point out that the pod did not develop around the potato cart [“PDX Pod Invasion,” Last Supper, July 15]. The first cart in that lot was El Brasero, and it’s still there. Then there were three or four carts/trailers [that] are no longer with us at that location—including a terrific soup trailer, one or two southern/BBQ carts, a simple sandwich cart—whose proprietor used to set up a nice little campfire from about 1 am to 3 am. So anyway, the scene was established—firmly established—before the Potato Champion (or the crêpe cart, etc.) arrived.

-posted by SEPDXAnon on portlandmercury.com

CONGRATS TO SEPDXAnon for the effort to preserve the historical background of Cartopia. For this he/she/it is entitled to two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, which had a cart back when Potato Champion was in diapers.

7 replies on “Letters to the Editor”

  1. I realize editing is needed at times for clarity or brevity however since you are not foreign to profanity or alternate viewpoints I feel that you have edited my last two “letters” somewhat judiciously. I will stand by my points however. There is a major difference between disagreeing with US foreign policy and military policy (and having been deployed a few times and being an historian of sorts i’d likely agree with most of you) and opening being hostile and disrespectful of the military

  2. Ghandi’s success had as much to do with British economic and foreign policy as it did nonviolence. While Mahatma Ghandi was indeed a great man I wonder how that there nonviolence passive protest stuff would have worked against the Nazi’s, eh Hastings?(rather ironically funny last name for someone who commented on the British). By benefit I meant education in the sciences, and hey if I had a kid I don’t know that I would be thrilled by exposure to the military. Then again it did’nt exactly sound like they were being indoctrinated. Don’t worry Portlanders, your whitebread art school hipster kids are unlikely to join the military and participate in one of the two pointless campaigns which are’nt likely to end soon. There will always be plenty of disadvantaged poor kids and people of color to fill the ranks.

  3. Dear Editor and chief,
    I found this weeks letters content, mature, informitive, generally agreeable, and with an uncommon lack of pettiness. Well done to all; and well done to the friend who shared his clonazepam with me this morning.

  4. The Showstopper,

    I think you err in equating the military with patriotism. There is no draft anymore so anyone who joins the military does so knowing that poor foreign policy decisions could involve them in a needless, unjustified war. Serving in the military means that you have to be comfortable with killing, sometimes innocent strangers. Many young people join because they don’t have many options. Sadly, some of them join because they think war is glorious and equate mass murder to video games. Also, with regards to pacifism, it is important to note the distinctions between self-defense, preemptive strikes , and nonviolent resistance. It doesn’t help to protect our country if we are “defending” it by preemptively attacking the wrong people, as we have in Iraq. I think there is an academic case for how nonviolent resistance might have been very effective in combating the Holocaust. The British capitulation to Gandhi had a lot to do with public relations and the worldwide public perception of their behavior against Indians. It doesn’t really matter if Portland’s “whitebread art school hipster kids” support the military by joining, they are forced to support the military through tax dollars. Perhaps if the tax dollars were spent helping disadvantaged poor kids and people of color jobs that didn’t include random violence and senseless acts of brutality in their description there wouldn’t be anything to debate about.

  5. I’m from Portland, I went to art school, sheeit I love white bread (Franz, of course). I joined the navy. Best artistic experience of my modest career. Sometimes a change of uniform can be just the sort of self-defiance that leads to those luscious green creative pastures.

  6. Well sailorjeffy it does figure it was the Navy. @The Golden, could’nt agree more but than again how likely is that? Btw, is China doing a tremendous amount to support it’s citizens? Off topic but I am fucking really tired of Americans making us out to be the worst nation in the world. Your conception of non violence working against the Holocaust is extremely naive. Why don’t you ask lets say the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto (you can’t, they’re dead) whether knowing the outcome they would have resisted more. I think the answer would have been yes. My grandfather died on a beach in Normandy. Perhaps that could have been avoided if some Portland Pacifists types had like protested those darn Huns eh? I don’t think all of you are Pacifists (a bullshit word if there ever was one), rather I suggest Passive/ aggressive if not down right wankers. While I would agree the current situation is utter bullshit, sometimes sacrifice is needed. Don’t be pussies your whole life. Certainly peace is preferable to conflict however if the alternative is slavery or domination than no it is’nt, sorry.

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