Volume 74, Number 28 | November 17 – 22, 2004
Letters to the editor
Election weighs on the mind
To The Editor:
I have been lying in bed, trying to assess what remains of my safety zone since Bush’s accession.
I’m 81 years old.
I don’t need an abortion.
My granddaughters are too young to send to war…yet.
I could probably scrape by without Social Security (but not without Medicare).
I am self-employed, so I probably won’t lose my job, though outsourcing myself has some attractions.
I am not suffering from some very expensive disease.
I am not homosexual (or planning to get married).
I am not a member of some ethnic group subject to being arrested without recourse.
I am not an illegal alien (my family has been here longer than Bush’s).
On the other hand, I no longer eat fish, fresh water or salt; they’re contaminated with mercury and/or P.C.B.s, which Bush allows industry to spew into our air and water.
My water is contaminated.
My oceans are over-fished and protection of dolphins, whales, etc. is being relaxed.
The wild places I have loved all my life are being mined, clear-cut, laced with roads.
The wetlands that support migrating wild fowl are being filled in.
Wildlife is being shot, its habitat destroyed.
I drove around Southeast Utah this past May. It is one of my favorite places. Bush is planning to hunt for oil near Arches and Canyonlands and other spectacularly beautiful and unique places.
I went there to say goodbye.
Otis Kidwell Burger
‘Westbeth: Gentrification,’ a poem
To The Editor:
My fine brick wall,
With fine bricks,
Walling in our privacy,
May erupt with a penthouse
And we be
Eyeball to eyeball
With chattering hosts,
Guests, potted trees:
What a roast!
Ruth M. Herschberger
Giving credit where it’s blue
To The Editor:
Re “Getting through the morning after” (talking point, by Wickham Boyle, Nov. 10):
Hey, Wickham Boyle: Don’t forget that not just the West Coast and the Northeast, but also the Middle Atlantics and heartlandic Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Pennsylvania supported us in our minority vote to defend our city and our country. Not to mention 90 percent for Kerry in Washington, D.C., where, like here, 9/11 is more than an abstract concept or political slogan. Gotta make sure all our true blue friends out there get credit.
Patricia Sandberg
