Letter of Editors: May 12, 2010

Free trade agreement endorses ‘systematic torture’

Editor:
The term “end” brings a rush of activity: finals, graduations, job and apartment searches.
How does this relate to dogs and cats half a world away?

Let’s look closer.

In another world, the South Korean government poises itself to pounce into the world economy through the proposed South Korean Free Trade Agreement which is now before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.

At the same time, in this same world, seemingly unrelated (but similarly compelling) events progress – the goings-on in the South Korean dog- and cat-eating industry.

These markets and farms go by the unfounded belief that dog and cat meat ‘tastes better’ if there is a release of adrenaline sustained by animals who endure systematic torture over a lengthened period of time before they die or are killed.

Yearly, millions endure:
-Crushing in wire cages in extreme weather.
-Stuffing into bags, pummeled violently with a hammer.
-While still alive, their paws are cut off.
-Lying helplessly on the ground, with just stumps for legs, if the animal in sheer agony moves or tries to resist, their heads are stomped upon.
-Still alive, they’re skinned (fur) and boiled or blended (often still alive).

If SKFTA is ratified, leverage to abolish this industry disappears. Make no mistake. More U.S. jobs will disappear also.

Nancy Pelosi, District 8, San Francisco, is now unilaterally empowered to stop SKFTA.

With our 110,000 student body and rich history of activism, act now! Nancy Pelosi, hold the vote. South Korea must meet with the worldwide humane community on the issue of dogs and cats killed for food, intentionally tortured, and on our jobs!

The San Francisco college-community is a force, a beacon for all U.S. college students – a voting mass which will alter our U.S. politics. We will make a difference in the world we are embarking upon. Nancy, you are up for re-election this November. Hear us now.

Patricia Knudsen
City College student

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‘South Korea’s cities would be overrun with strays — thereby making their lives miserable’

Dear Editor:

(This letter is in response to “Free Trade Agreement Endorses ‘Systematic Torture’ – A letter to the editor that advocates that the U.S. should force South Korea to ban the consumption of dogs and cats in their own country.)

Friends, City Collegians, San Franciscans — Lend me your ears! (Well, in this case eyes.)
I come not insult Ms. Knudson (the author of the original letter) but to praise her. For she is an honorable woman and a true patriot.
Only she stood out from us Americans and declared in so many words, “I don’t like how they run their lives, let’s tell them how to run them.”
A true American!
Only she understood how our competitive trade partner South Korea feeds its poor and decided to try to make them starve. Thereby giving us, the U.S., an edge.
A cunning strategist!
Only she comprehended that with all those animals left alive, South Korea’s cities would be overrun with strays — thereby making their lives miserable.
God Bless Her! God Bless P.E.T.A. and God Bless these Untied States of America!
Ben Cooper
City College Student

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‘You liberals eat each other like maggots’

This letter is in response to the ridiculous editorial “Universal Health Care Abandoned.” I found your editorial to be despicable and full of nothing but ignorance.  I despise how you depict President Obama as the lone decisive factor in getting universal health care for the country. Barack Obama had to fight tooth and nail just to achieve the little change that is on the new bill. Your editorial insinuates that most of the country “feels let down” by Obama for not socializing health care. Your editorial is a subliminal jab at his “failure” on the behalf of those that “feel let down.”  The fact is that most of the citizens in this country OPPOSE Universal Health Care!! Obama is not a king! He is not an Emperor! He can’t just snap his figures and change the policies and proceedings of this country. Instead of supporting him for the little change he has brought, you liberals condemn him. My God, at least republicans stick together but you liberals eat each other like maggots and it’s no wonder why you are all known as a bunch of complainers. You folks are uneducated. Change in this country is a process not a one man decision and to say that his message of hope was just for show is a new low for the Guardian. Your newspaper has no direction. It is just a mess of uneducated, amateur, and ultra-liberal nonsense.

Jorge Lacayo

‘The naivety of the Guardian baffles me and I won’t be reading it anymore’

This letter is in response to your recent commentary on the new Osama Bin Laden Tape. I found your commentary on the subject to be nothing but a rip off of Newsweek Magazine. Why don’t you do some real independent journalism and conduct your own investigation instead of just emulating other news magazines. You speak of Bin Laden as if he were the mascot for the face of terror and that he was the only one that had a hand in the orchestration of 9-11. Any real journalist would already know that Bin laden has been in and out of CIA custody since he’s been on the top 10 FBI’s most wanted list. One example of this is the treatment he received in July 2000 at an American Hospital in Dubai.  Bin laden also couldn’t have been the only elements behind the 9-11 events. Can a guy in cave get NORAD to stand down? How did Bin Laden know of the Global Guardian and other war game exercises that were being carried out on 9-11? How did he know that Air defense in the country would be vulnerable at the time? How was he able to place nano thermite into the WTC buildings (which was found through electronic microscope analysis by physics professor Dr. Steven Jones)? How was he able to detonate the dozens of explosions in building 7 that were all heard and felt by the New Yorkers that were there on the day? The point I’m trying to make is that Bin Laden is nothing but a patsy. He’s nothing but a face for the public when in actuality there is a huge handful of  people responsible that will go forever unpunished because of idiotic editorials such as yours that keep the spot light off the unanswered questions and on the “official story.” The U.S. will NEVER catch Bin Laden. They don’t want to. His family has invested far too much in this country. You guys need to wake up and do more critical thinking. The naivety of the Guardian baffles me and I won’t be reading it anymore.

Jorge Lacayo

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‘Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid Are Worth Fighting For’

Corporations and their paid-for politicians have caused the worst economic crisis since the Depression of the 1930s. Not satisfied with taking away our jobs, our homes, and our savings, they are now dismantling public education.

They are also dismantling Social Security, Medicare, and Medi-Cal. As we speak, they are convening secretive, high-power Commissions to kill these programs’ legal protections for seniors, disabled people, kids, and the poor.  The fight for public education, Social Security, Medicare, and Medi-Cal is a fight for all of us: seniors, kids, poor people, people with disabilities, and younger adults.

These programs are worth fighting for, particularly for younger adults.

For 75 years, Social Security has kept tens of millions of seniors out of poverty and independent.  Would you want your parents to be dependent on you when they get old? Would you want to be dependent on your children when you get old?  Social Security is there for you even now. Payroll taxes have kept Social Security solvent for decades. Making high-earners pay would keep Social Security solvent indefinitely. We demand the government repay the Social Security Trust Fund the trillions it borrowed for wars, bank bailouts, and upper-income tax cuts.

Don’t be fooled. The same ones who say Social Security is doomed and must be cut or privatized to survive, say public schools are doomed and must be converted to  charter schools to survive!

For 35 years, Medicare and Medicaid have kept tens of millions of seniors, the poor, and people with disabilities from serious illness and premature death, but now its financing is being challenged. Meanwhile, younger adults cannot get medical care either from employers or on their own. The cure? Don’t cut Medicare. Extend Medicare to everyone, so we ALL have equal, comprehensive, affordable, and accessible care.  Don’t be fooled.  On a per-person basis, seniors’ health care costs are rising no faster than everyone else’s.  The problem is health care profits, not seniors and Medicare.

Restore funding for all students, pre-school through graduate school. Restore social service cuts.  No cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medi-Cal. Single payer health care. Restore progressive taxation on corporations and the wealthiest.  Stop spending billions on wars that
bleed our programs and kill our jobless youth.

Please call the President, Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Rep. Pelosi to say no cuts or privatization of Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.  Their numbers are: 202-456-1414, (415) 393-0707, (415) 403-0100, and 415-556-4862.  There will be a Town Hall meeting on
protecting these benefits on Thursday, May 13, 10 AM, at the Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin St. in San Francisco.

Michael Lyon
For:
California Alliance for Retired Americans, 415-550-0828
San Francisco Gray Panthers, 415-552-8800
Senior Action Network,