Letters Letters
THE CHAD MAN COMETH... Providence, R.I. For nearly four decades, the fine New York Yankee outfielder, Roger Maris, suffered the ignominy of the asterisk after his...
Jan 12, 2001 / Letters / Our Readers
Letters Letters
FEMINIST GENERATION GAP? New York City It certainly is flattering to have a five-page comprehensive review of our book, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism an...
Jan 5, 2001 / Letters / Our Readers
Letters Letters
DIVORCE, AMERICAN STYLE REDUX Las Vegas Perhaps I can have the last word on Katha Pollitt's review of Judith Wallerstein's Legacy of Divorce ["Subject to Debate," Oct. 23; "Exchange," Dec. 4]. I'm a sociologist who has written and taught about marriage and family for seven years. Whatever the merits of the methodological debate on Wallerstein, I have my own method of truth, which although nonscientific has proven extremely reliable. Every semester I ask my students to raise their hands if their parents are divorced. As in the rest of the population, around half raise their hands. I then ask them to keep their hands raised if they wish their parents had not divorced. Without exception, all but one or two hands fall. When I ask those who lowered their hands, "Why?" they respond that the stress and conflict of unhappy parents took an intense emotional toll on them. If the children themselves have no regrets, why should we? DR. ROBERT MANIS THE TENNIS, POKER & BLACKLIST BOYS New York City The recent moving tributes to the late Ring Lardner Jr. by Victor Navasky [Nov. 27] and Roger Kahn [Dec. 4] encourage me to add my own, as one of Ring's few contemporaries still alive. Ring and I were both born in Chicago on the same day--August 19, 1915. I was privileged to be part of a poker game that began in the 1950s when Ring and Ian Hunter, with Maurice Rapf and the composer Sol Kaplan, moved to New York after the blacklist drove them out of Hollywood, and included many of the lawyers who defended them, like Martin Popper, Jerry Lurie and his law partner Sidney Cohen. Sidney had invented what came to be known as the "diminished Fifth," which would have permitted answers to the key question raised by HUAC without naming names, which Ring famously said he could answer but that he would hate himself in the morning. We had all reached the age when we felt that for health reasons we would meet every Thursday to play two hours of tennis at 4 pm before reassembling for poker in the evening. For about thirty years, until we could no longer play either tennis or poker, Thursday became for all of us the high spot of the week. We began by occasionally joining a poker game on 28th Street, dominated by Zero Mostel and his former WPA artist friends, that had begun back in the Depression; but the high decibel level of any game with both Zero and sculptor Herb Kallem drove us to organize our own Upper West Side tennis/poker group. To fulfill our wildest fantasies, we decided to play our first game at a Turkish bath at Al Roon's on West 73rd Street, as suggested by a short story by Irwin Shaw, but we found that the steam melted the cards, and we were forced to rent a room to finish the evening. For the next thirty years the game was held at Ian's apartment in the Belnord on 86th Street. Ian was a great cook and would sometimes prepare a delicious roast beef for us. Otherwise, the kitty would permit us to order from the Stage Door Delicatessen or the Tip Toe Inn. When the blacklist was finally broken and Ring could write under his own name, I like to think that we all had a hand in his script for The Cincinnati Kid. After Ring's second Oscar, for M*A*S*H, we all enjoyed hearing that the pendulum in Hollywood had swung to the point that blacklisted writers had become social lions, and some people were now lying that they had been blacklisted. While we almost never talked about our personal problems all through those years, the weekly meeting became a refuge from a hostile world for those of us who retained the ideals we had formed in the Depression years. In addition to the original group, we were later joined by Bella Abzug's husband, Martin, Peter Bernard and Jesse Reed. Maurice and I, alas, are the sole survivors. The group left an important legacy to our children--to appreciate the joys of living a life of principle. JAY M. GOULD WHAT WORKS: METROPOLITICS Orange, Va. Thanks to Jay Walljasper for a terrific article ["From the 'Burbs to the 'Hood," Nov. 20] on Myron Orfield and his plans (and achievements) for metropolitics! Orfield explains why, in the words of many a Republican, "schools need more than just money." Schools--all schools--need more money and lots of it. But the concentration of severely poor students in certain schools, not relative underfunding, is key to their relative failure. Vouchers will only aggravate this problem, but voucher proponents have one thing right: Students do better in schools with other students who bring learning from home. Orfield's ideas for regional planning offer an actual solution to this national disaster--the reduction of concentrated poverty. Walljasper concluded by suggesting we promote metropolitics as something "pragmatic" rather than just. I'm not sure, but it sounds like an underestimation. Increasingly, labor unions and environmental groups are forming blue-green alliances against sprawl, big-box employers, the defunding of mass transit and affordable housing, the lengthening of commuting time and the transfer of jobs to suburban un-unionized companies. "Unions are basically an urban institution," Don Turner, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor told me in arguing for such efforts, which are being led by a group called Good Jobs First (www.goodjobsfirst.org). At a national conference on living-wage campaigns in Baltimore recently, ACORN discussed building coalitions with environmentalists. Wade Rathke of ACORN and SEIU in New Orleans (where a living wage of $1 above the minimum wage will be on a ballot soon) said, "You cannot separate economic development from income policy." Other conferees recommended working for laws requiring economic development commissions to bring any decision above a certain dollar figure before elected officials for a public vote. In Minnesota a law now requires these commissions to establish criteria for giving out their (that is, the public's) money. With advocates for the working poor pushing such issues, it's hard not to see regional planning as a matter of justice. DAVID SWANSON A KVITCH, A KVETCH, A KRECHTZ Morris Plains, N.J. Ilan Stavans criticizes Ruth Wisse for neglecting the Sephardic contribution to Jewish literature, but in his own anthology, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories, less than 10 percent of the authors are Sephardic ["Mr. Sammler's Planet," Nov. 27]. There's a good reason, and it has nothing to do with bias. Modern Jewish literature flourished in Europe among Ashkenazic Jews, because of the influence of the Enlightenment. Few Sephardic Jews lived there. The heyday of Sephardic literature was the Golden Age in Spain, and US Jewish scholars have not neglected these writings, as Stavans claims. They can be found in well-known sources, including Lewis Browne's The Wisdom of Israel, Nahum Glatzer's The Judaic Tradition and Nathan Ausubel's A Treasury of Jewish Poetry. Stavans's claim that Jews have not created their own literary canon is also questionable. In addition to his own anthology, which Stavans is perhaps too modest to mention, there are excellent collections edited by Joseph Leftwich, Leo W. Schwarz and Saul Bellow. Other peculiarities in his review include his characterization of Bialik, the Hebrew poet, as "proto-Zionist" and Wisse's book as "proto-Ashkenazic." In both cases, the prefix "proto" is superfluous. Finally the first name of Peretz, the Yiddish writer, can be written as Yitchak or Isaac, but never "Itzjak," and kvetch is a perfectly good Yiddish word, not "Yinglish." So please accept this kvetch as an antidote to Stavans's. BENNETT MURASKIN GIVE THE FALUN GONG A BREAK New York City Something weird happens to people of the left persuasion when they travel to countries flying the red star (I know, it happened to me). They tend to lose perspective, as has my old pal Christopher Hitchens, judging by his vitriolic put-down of Falun Gong ["Minority Report," Nov. 20]. How odd that he echoes the language of a Chinese Communist Party campaign of defamation, cult-bashing and false allegations in a crackdown even Hitch calls "clumsy" and "probably counterproductive" (probably?). Yo, brother, we are talking about more than seventy people dead in police custody so far, and as many as 50,000 detained, many of them subjected to torture and abuse (including being involuntarily tossed into mental hospitals). I have just published Falun Gong's Challenge to China (Akashic Books) and have also produced a film by the same title, which offer an independent assessment of this crisis. In all my research, I didn't find a shred of evidence to substantiate the state media's accusations that Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi has used "tricks" to "induce the credulous to part with their money" (Hitchens's words, though they sound like they come from Beijing's People's Daily) or to suggest that these nonviolent practitioners have been programmed to protest. (Remember the civil rights movement?) Ironically, many are pro-party and pro-government and have been appealing for justice from a regime that won't hear them. These folks preach tolerance and compassion. How about showing some? DANNY SCHECHTER HITCHENS REPLIES Washington, D.C. Danny Schechter--who is not my old pal--can certainly speak for himself when it comes to credulity. He fell for everything from the Khmer Rouge to Clinton, and now the Falun Gong has helped him get in touch with his inner swastika. Check out the FG website (www.falundafa.org) if you think I jest. CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS PRONOUNCE IT 'PERFECTION' Santa Rosa, Calif. After all these years of wondering, I finally have heard the way to say "Klawans"! The eminent film critic would not divulge this information when a reader wrote in some time back ["Letters," July 19, 1999]. Many of us consider Mr. K the best movie critic in the (small n) nation if not the world, so now when we read a review in his excellent style, we'll know it's Kla-wans. Anyway, so said the MC introducing him during the TMC movie classics program. CELIA TALBOT New York City If you ever fire Stuart Klawans as your reviewer, I'll drop your rag like a Republican Party membership card. In a world gone mad, he is my only idol. CARL SKUTSCH
Dec 22, 2000 / Letters / Our Readers
Letters Letters
LEAVE IT TO THE PROS Austin, Tex. Dang! You guys missed the point again! If this electoral brouhaha proved anything, it is this: Electing the President of the United States is too important to entrust to the people. We can't read a simple ballot. We can't poke a sharp object through a piece of paper. Heck, half of us didn't even show up to vote. Clearly, we need to turn this over to professionals. So, here's what we do. First, every four years, the Democratic and Republican parties each nominate a candidate for President by means known only to themselves and their... sponsors. This puts the nomination process squarely and publicly in the hands of professional kingmakers, who know what's best for us. We all agree that only the Democrats and the Republicans are competent to lead the nation, so we only need the two candidates. Next, we commission two presidential opinion polls, one by each party. This gives the evaluation process to the professional opinion-makers, who know what's best for us. This is elegant for two reasons. First, there will be no more bumbling over confusing ballots or struggling with recalcitrant punches. Second, the sampling will represent 100 percent of the population! We need exactly two polls. That way, the two parties will keep each other honest, as they have for the past century, without making the process too confusing. Surely, we will not elect a President by opinion poll, I hear you think. You are correct! The opinion polls will only be guidelines for the state legislatures, which will elect the representatives to the Electoral College. So we will have professional lawmakers, who know what is best for us, selecting our electors. That brings us to the Electoral College. That hoary institution is in serious need of reform. Take, for example, the thousands of disfranchised felons. I propose that we count 60 percent of them for purposes of allocating electoral votes. I also propose 60 percent for legal aliens and, say, 40 percent for illegal aliens. But the important thing is a process that makes sense. We can work out the details later. ROBERT L. BLAU 'THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULERS' Pristina, Kosovo I had the pleasure and privilege of working with Amy Goodman as guest producer for a few days some months ago ["For Democracy Now!" Nov. 13]. I come from years of working with mainstream radio, and the Democracy Now! team and show felt like an oxygen tent. The attention paid to issues that never make it to the front pages, the use of critical and dissenting voices, and, more important, voices from the grassroots, make the program both compelling and indispensable. It was an exhilarating experience when Thomas Pickering's direct line was jammed by calls following DN!'s exposure of how FBI agents let a Peruvian torturer leave the United States scot-free. Similarly, the office was inundated by calls after DN! gave prominent coverage to another example of police brutality in New York. For me, this was further proof that issues like this are of interest to listeners and that the airwaves can be an effective means of mobilization. I had understood this was part of Pacifica's mandate and that DN!'s slogan, "The exception to the rulers," was based on a common Pacifica vision. The DN! show is what journalism should be about--for, with and of the people. It would be a shame to let the management get away with destroying it. SPUTNIK KILAMBI Free Speech Radio News Contributor $KY-HIGH PRE$CRIPTION DRUG PRICES Washington, D.C. I appreciated William Greider's November 13 editorial, "If Politics Got Real...," challenging the rationale sustaining this country's laissez-faire attitude toward inflated prescription drug prices. As the author of legislation (The Affordable Prescription Drugs Act) that would codify the compulsory licensing approach mentioned in the piece, I am quite familiar with the "lower prices imperil medical advancement" threat used by the drug industry to protect its current pricing practices. This well-worn threat implies that drug companies are the only source of funding for research and development. As Greider pointed out, pharmaceutical manufacturers fund only a portion of the R&D conducted in the United States today, and if they continue to abuse their power in the marketplace, the public may see to it that their role in R&D is diminished even further. It also implies that inflated drug prices are the only way to generate R&D dollars. High prices are an expedient way to make money, but not the only way. Sales volume matters, too. Lower prices, which make the number of purchasers and the volume of purchases more important, might be just the incentive the industry needs to diversify and expand its R&D investment beyond a handful of blockbuster and copycat drugs. In 1983, the drug industry was confronted with legislation paving the way for a robust generic-drug industry. At that time, brand-name drug manufacturers claimed that generic competition and lower prices would have a significant dampening effect on R&D. Still, the Hatch-Waxman Act was signed into law, and the generic-drug industry now manufactures nearly 50 percent of all drugs dispensed in the United States. By the drug industry's own estimates, R&D skyrocketed. Annual R&D outlays increased 600 percent, from $3 billion in 1983 to $21 billion in 1998. A third premise underlying the R&D threat is that drug industry revenues depend on whether US consumers pay more than consumers in other industrialized nations for the same drugs. Again, it is convenient for drug manufacturers to charge the United States more to compensate for discounts negotiated with other countries--it certainly takes some pressure off those negotiations--but it is not necessary. Other industrialized countries and the drug industry are benefiting from our laissez-faire attitude toward prescription drug prices. Greider's editorial cuts through drug industry rhetoric to get to the basic point: If the drug industry won't voluntarily price in a manner that reflects the essential nature of prescription drugs, the United States is going to have to take matters into its own hands. The question is: How bad does the situation have to get before political expediency gives way to the public interest? Thank you for helping to educate the public and provoke their interest in this issue. SHERROD BROWN US Representative AFRICA FALLS OFF THE MAP New York City; Washington, D.C. It is disappointing to find a writer in The Nation echoing George W. Bush's view that Africa does not make it onto the list of US foreign policy priorities. Sherle R. Schwenninger ["America and the World: The End of Easy Dominance," Nov. 20] deals at length with George W. Bush's list of priorities--Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. But Africa and such global issues vital to Africa as debt cancellation, structural adjustment policies and UN peacekeeping win at best passing mentions. The global health crisis, including the AIDS pandemic devastating Africa, is entirely off Schwenninger's map of world issues. Leaving Africa (and South Asia as well) as "invisible continents" in an article titled "America and the World" is the no doubt unintended reflection of the current world order of global apartheid. Africa, with more than one-eighth of the world's population, is also at the heart of today's "global" issues, such as the universal right to health and democratic accountability of global institutions. In foreign policy, just as on the domestic front, there can be no plausible progressive alternative without confronting the hard realities of race. Schwenninger speaks of popular support for a US posture based on partnership rather than dominance. But moves in that direction will be abortive as long as pundits on the left join those on the right in keeping Africa invisible. SALIH BOOKER WILLIAM MINTER Africa Policy Information Center SCHWENNINGER REPLIES New York City I agree almost entirely with Salih Booker and William Minter about the importance of the issues they identify. But the focus of my article was not on what US foreign policy priorities should be; it was on the end of America's easy dominance. As important as the problems they cite are, none of them go to the heart of the easy dominance the United States enjoyed over the past decade, or to the forces that are bringing that easy dominance to an end. SHERLE R. SCHWENNINGER LAWMAKERS, NOT LAWYERS Washington, D.C. The Nation editorial advocating a civil-suit remedy for the Ford/Firestone debacle ["Firestonewalling," Oct. 2] makes the same error that many otherwise intelligent liberals have made for years, arguing that because no one will pursue criminal charges (a premise that turns out to be incorrect, thanks to the surprising legislation put forward by Senator John McCain), the only recourse for justice is massive litigation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lawsuit "justice," backed by Association of Trial Lawyers of America money and rhetoric, targets the innocent, overlooks the guilty and rewards the undeserving. If a successful suit is brought against Firestone, the following are certain: § The settlement will be paid by consumers and innocent, low-end Firestone employees. No one believes payment will come from top executives' salaries, nor would a firm that has just inherited a shaky public image further endanger its stock price by paying damages out of profits. If corporate history is any guide, Firestone will pay the settlement by enacting a combination of price hikes and cuts in labor and benefits. § Guilty executives will go free. Not only will executives pay no part of the damages, those who had to know that Firestone was selling demonstrably lethal tires will, in all likelihood, retain their jobs. In the extreme case, guilty executives asked to resign can safely glide in their golden parachutes to other pastures. § Lawyers who never have owned a Ford or Firestone will become fabulously wealthy (or more so). However hard they work on the case, the attorneys enjoy a lottery-type windfall that far exceeds any justifiable compensation for their "services." Again, this booty comes not from the guilty but from innocent bystanders. However rare criminal prosecution of corporate misdeeds may be, civil litigation proliferation is no substitute. Tough, clearly written, well-enforced regulation--including criminal prosecution--is the only answer to corporate crime. JOSH HILGART
Dec 14, 2000 / Letters / Our Readers
Letters Letters
OH CHADS, POOR CHADS... Hayward, Calif. I share William Greider's glee about the election stalemate ["Stupefied Democracy," Dec. 4] and the opportunity ...
Dec 7, 2000 / Letters / Our Readers
Letters Letters
E-FAHRENHEIT 451? Berkeley, Calif. The article on electronic books ["On Pixel Pages It Was Writ," June 12] left out the most intriguing aspect of this new format: dig...
Nov 27, 2000 / Letters / Our Readers
Divorce, American Style Divorce, American Style
Divorce, American Style New York City In The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, Judith Wallerstein argues that the consequences of parental divorce for children are...
Nov 16, 2000 / Letters / Katha Pollitt and Our Readers
Malthusian Delusions? Malthusian Delusions?
Malthusian Delusions? Franklin, N.Y. Amartya Sen starts his otherwise sensible "Population and Gender Equity" [July 24/31] with the unproven assertion that Thomas Malth...
Nov 10, 2000 / Letters / Our Readers
‘If You’re Talkin’ Politics…’ ‘If You’re Talkin’ Politics…’
Washington, D.C. As I have traveled the country in this election year, many progressives have asked me whether I believe a vote for Ralph Nader is justified to promo...
Nov 2, 2000 / Letters / Ani DiFranco, Our Readers, and Rep. John Conyers
‘Supreme Coort Follows th’ Iliction’ ‘Supreme Coort Follows th’ Iliction’
'Supreme Coort Follows th' Iliction' Missoula, Mont. Thank you for your Supreme Court issue, "Up for Grabs: The Supreme Court and the Election" [Oct. 9], wh...
Oct 26, 2000 / Letters / Ralph Nader and Our Readers