Letters to the Editor

Letter to Asheville Citizen Times (not published, as far as I know):

Our 17 years of war of aggression on Afghanistan has resulted in much more poverty, much more environmental degradation, and much more violence for the people of Afghanistan. For the American people, it has used up a load of money that could have been used for something useful and has not made us one bit safer. 

For the US military personnel who were stationed there, it has resulted in many suicides. The top killer of US troops in Afghanistan is suicide, with the second top killer being the Afghans - that the US troops are training in Afghanistan - turning their weapons on them. 

How many more years or decades are we going to pursue this war on Afghanistan before we get out of there? When are we going to let Afghans pursue their own course without our bombs and interference? We are certainly not accomplishing anything good there, when the people we are training to secure the place are actually killing our troops.

I think we need to get our military out of Afghanistan and stop all US airstrikes and bombings. It is a pointless and illegal war and it needs to end now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Letter to Charlotte Observer (published an excerpt):

 In the early days of the war of aggression on Iraq, we were told that we were bringing them ‘freedom and democracy’. Now, over 15 years later, our military is still in Iraq, still bombing, still fighting the bad guys (supposedly), and still destroying the country. What we have brought them is the freedom of the grave and the democracy of death. And we are still doing this over 15 years later. In Afghanistan, we have been running the war of aggression on them for over 17 years. And, for much of the country, the people in charge today are pretty much the same group (Taliban) who were in charge when we started. This strikes me as totally insane to keep doing this. 

We have poverty here at home, we are facing environmental collapse from a warming planet, and our medical and educational systems are under severe stress from a lack of funding. Yet over half of our tax dollars go to the Pentagon and our forever wars that breed more terrorism. It is both Democrats and Republicans who are voting for and promoting these policies on a regular basis. I think things need to change and change fast.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Letter to Mountain Express (not published):

I have always believed that war is failure of human compassion and human intelligence. But, after 17 years of war on the country of Afghanistan, I am pondering how this failure can continue for so long. It seems that this is a rabid commitment and dedication to stupidity to continue occupying and bombing a country that is now mainly back under the control of the very group that was in charge when we started. 

The country itself, however, is in worse shambles than ever, with human rights further deteriorated than ever. And in the process, tens of thousands have been killed, hundreds of thousands are significantly injured, and millions have had their lives, health, family life, work and education disrupted. It is beyond simple stupidity. It is beyond a simple lack of compassion for our fellow human beings who happen to live in Afghanistan. The war on terror is producing more terrorism every day and it completely counter-productive. It is also immoral and illegal. 

Mountain Express responded and said this:

“Thank you for your letter. Since Xpress focuses on local and regional issues, it's unlikely that we would be able to publish a letter focused only on national/international topics.”

I responded with this: 

These ongoing wars and massive US military spending IS a local issue. I am going this weekend to the Women's March on the Pentagon. There are at least three other women from Asheville going to this March. I will be sharing your email with them. It is a local issue beyond that fact that some people care - it is our tax dollars that are funding these wars, our fellow citizens who are running them, and our climate and environment that is paying the price.

And if a local person is killed in Afghanistan, would you cover that? After all, they died from a national/international issue, which is our endless wars, so if you did cover it, you would just be a hypocrite. 

And why wouldn't local kids enroll in the military? After all, they never hear a word about what is really going on overseas or in our military. They never hear from a counter-view to all this war-making which is ignored on every level while patriotism and militarism is always be pushed by every corporate media outlet. 

Climate change, partisan politics, the national economy, federal government actions and decisions, wars overseas, international trade agreements, US military pollution and carbon use, foreign relations, and events outside our area are all national/international events that impact us locally - and some of which the Mountain Express covers. 

Do you know that there is only one group in Asheville who has held a weekly public vigil WITHOUT FAIL for the last 15+ years? And that group is the Veterans for Peace. There is no climate action group that has done that, yet Mountain Express covers climate issues that are non-local. I am out of town right now, but I would be surprised if there is no mention of the flooding from the two hurricanes that happened outside of our area in this week's issue.

Mountain Express responded (after a while) with this:

“Thanks for getting back in touch, and my apologies for the slow response. If you'd like to revise your letter to include references to the local groups you mention, or action that people in Asheville or WNC could take locally, then that could be enough to qualify it for publication in Xpress.”

I just did not follow up. Too much letter writing with too little publication.