Newspapers Change Lives
Hi, I just read the new paper and wanted to say thank
you for doing what you're doing! I thought the Wal-Mart
article was really well done.
I'm also writing to let you know how
a little article in the Octopus three years ago changed
my life. It was written by a guy who was living work-trade
style on a permaculture farm in Hawaii. It was my
first introduction to permaculture, and his listing
of all the energy inputs required just to bring a
can of soup to your lunch table as an example of the
wasteful and stupid design of our "modern"
systems really opened my eyes. This article led me
to read some permaculture books, and two years later
(last year), I took a Permaculture design course and
spent the year work-trading (working for room and
board) on organic and Permaculture farms.
The point is, when people read about
positive ways and organizations in which they can
get involved, they often take action. I'm excited
to see that the IMC will be a great source to inform
people who might be waiting for their inspiration.
I spent the last three months as an intern helping
an ecovillage in Iowa get started. The project is
not so much a hippie commune as it is a sustainable
subdivision, totally off the grid of public utilities,
located on the edge of a small town. As far as they
know, it is the first of its kind. The web site is
http://www.abundance-ecovillage.com. Permaculture
provides people with solutions, starting right outside
their back door, to the problems that face us. I hope
that it can be discussed in a future "public
i".
Gordon Kay
Article Overlooks Murder
Victims
It is unfortunate that the inaugural Community Forum
article (The Death Penalty; Not Eye for Eye, August
'01) so thoughtlessly portrays opposition to capital
punishment. While the author pours her soul out over
the failures and limitations of capital punishment,
she takes time out to grieve for our society, our
politicians, our sixteen-and-up murderers, herself,
and specifically for Tim McVeigh. Conspicuous in its
absence is any grief for the victims.
In truth, the death penalty awaits only
a tiny percentage of those convicted of capital crimes.
More people on death row have died of natural causes
than have been executed, so any discussion of its
"deterrent effect" is moot. Dying of old
age is hardly a deterrent.
But that hardly matters to murder victims.
We learned from Ms. Ahten's article that 3,661 men
and women are on death row in the US. But she chooses
not to share how many victims they represent. McVeigh
murdered 168 men, women, and children. Ted Bundy murdered
over thirty young women. The list goes on.
Ms. Ahten says she is shutting down
emotionally due to the pain that capital punishment
brings her. I suppose thinking about the real victims
would be too much for her to bear. But forgetting
the true victims in her article was remarkably thoughtless,
and failing to grieve for them doesn't do their survivors
justice.
Rob Ferguson
