Feb 5 - Salt Spring Island Archives

Page 10
Piece of drivel
Sir,
Would you please explain your
reasons for publishing a letter from
name withheld by request in the
January 29 issue of Driftwood. 1 }
While I can understand no name's
reasons for not wanting to add his
name to such a provocative and illinformed
piece of drivel, I find it
difficult to understand the
editorial and judgmental process
you followed in making the
decision to publish it without his
name. I believe it is important to
know what your editorial policy
will be in such matters.
LOWELL HICKS.
All a plot
Sir,
The gentleman who wrote the
anonymous letter (Mr. X?)
warning us about the nefarious
nature of the local peace groups
deserves our compliments. Not
only is he modest unlike other
brave freedom fighters (Mr.
Marcos of the Philippines, for
example), but his sense of
priorities is right on the mark.
The risk of peace is intolerable
since it would allow the Soviets
and peole in the third world to
improve their standard of living,
divert untold billions of dollars
from creative investment in the
arms industry, force many groups
of brave freedom fighters like the
Contras and the Death squads to
abandon their honourable war
against their own people and go
back to plain gangsterism and raise
the price of bananas.
Worst of all, peace will erode the
present structure of starvation and
misery that allows a small fraction
of the people on the planet (the
ones presumably blessed by God)
to have all the gadgets they want
while culling the unfit in the third
world through the creative use of
military technology.
Nay, better be blown up to
Kingdom Come, all of us, at once,
including the trees, animals and all
that lives rather than give up our
right to be brainwashed by
Madison Avenue, the Pentagon or
the Kremlin. Mr. X points out that
"// the preservation of this freedom
means that 'our side' must be one
up 'on their side' then so be it."
Good point. If you and your
"adversary" are locked in combat
in a basement whose floor is awash
with gasoline and you have 30,000
matches while your opponent has
20,000 matches, would it not make
good sense to get more matches
than your adversary? This way you
will at least guarantee that you will
get "up" there first when it all
blows up.
I guess I do not really qualify to
belong to the peace group
(malcontents, dreamers, draft
dodgers and self-styled intellectuals")
since I am relatively
content; I have killed, burned and
pillaged in the service of my
country and have never received
my "intellectual" diploma. I do
confess to having dreamt on
occasion, especially dreams about
the abolition of stupidity; and
worse than that, I have dreamt, on
occasion that humanity might
evolve beyond the ape mentality.
In any case, I intend to submit
an invoice to both the Kremlin and
the CIA for 64 cents, the price of
paper, ribbon and postage for this
letter but I have little faith in their
GULF ISLANDS DRIFTWOOD
more letters
bureaucrats. Besides, the Soviets
are going broke trying to develop
counter-measures to Star Wars,
feeding their troops in
Afghanistan, Hungary, Poland,
etc. and the Americans are no use
either as their resources are all tied
up in Nicaragua, Chile, Nanoose
Bay, the CIA and NATO, etc.
I tried to feed all of Mr. X's
equations into my computer, but it
threw up, blew a fuse and
reminded me of the GIGO
principle (Garbage In = Garbage
Out).
Maybe it's all a plot, perhaps by
the Gnomes of Zurich or by beings
from the star Sirius who want to
drive the people of the Earth nuts
in order to blow themselves all up
and therefore pave the way for
them to colonize the Earth.
Reading Mr. X's letter, they may
be succeeding.
URI COGAN,
Fulford Harbour.
Disturbing
Sir,
I was disturbed to find an
anonymous letter in the January
29 issue of Driftwood, concerning
the local peace groups. How could
you possibly withhold the writer's
name from a letter filled with such
strong political content and
innuendo? At best this must be
considered poor judgment on your
part.
•
Wednesday, February 5. 1986
As for the writer, does he not
believe enough in what he is saying
to be publicly identified with those
views? I don't object to his right to
express his opinion, make
accusations or generally speak his
mind, but surely all that must lose
much credibility because of the
anonymity of the writer.
Hopefully, other thoughtful
people will agree.
MICHAEL MURRAY,
Ganges.
Driftwood is
recyclable
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