Letters to the editor for Aug. 28
There’s nothing wrong with being an anarchist
Joe Biden said, “Anarchists should be prosecuted.” Donald Trump agrees. This is part of a long bipartisan history of criminalizing a political ideology committed to peace.
Anarchism — descended from the philosophy of the French worker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and famously elaborated on by Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Emma Goldman — says that we can take care of ourselves if you let us; that oppression comes from the top down, and freedom from the bottom up. Its expressions are EGYHOP (Emma Goldman Youth and Homeless Outreach Project in Olympia) and the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), a union famous for winning immigrant women a living wage.
The major liberal donor Ed Buck is facing felony charges in connection with his history of bringing African-American men to his house, where he would inject them with drugs for sexual gratification; two of those men died. But we do not outlaw liberalism.
Conservative James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people who had been peacefully protesting in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing anti-racist Heather Heyer; yet it is only anarchists who are defined by their violent minority.
This is intentional government policy. Since President Wilson, the U.S. government has found the criminalization of anarchism an effective way to suppress opposition to violence. The National Guard, citing anarchism, unleashed a wave of terrorism against Pacific Northwest lumberjacks, killing several, because they opposed World War I. “Anti-Syndicalism” laws, partially still in effect, banned the Red Flag and workplace organizing for peace. Emma Goldman was deported by citing her anarchism.
It was anarchism’s very commitment to anti-violence that made it necessary to crush anarchists back then, and now efforts to end the 1,000+ people killed every year by police has resurrected dangerous and misleading rhetoric.
Max Carlson, Olympia, PNW Wobbly
At least it’s not nuclear war
Back in February, none of us could have predicted what the next six months would have in store for us. As a sociology instructor, I am particularly interested in significant shifts in public behavior, and since this spring we have presided over an unimaginable set of changes to our norms of behavior.
As disorienting as this is, I like thinking about my naïve, pre-COVID reality, as it shows that life can change dramatically in what seems like an instant. September 11 comes to mind as a night-and-day change to our reality. The climate crisis will involve another dramatic set of behavior changes, where we’ll have to think back to remember the pre-crisis reality.
With all of the attention on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I am prodded to ask how different the reality would be after even limited nuclear war. In a flash, those who remain would again find themselves forced to change behavior, only now the lockdown would be to prevent death from radioactive fallout.
Recently the International Committee of the Red Cross put out a video sharing the effects of one nuclear bomb exploded over a city. We would be looking at many more deaths and a collapse of both food systems and any real emergency response. In short, life after the use of nuclear weapons would make life under COVID-19 look pretty appealing.
Tim Mark Russell, Olympia
Truckers deserve our thanks
Something we’ve always taken for granted when visiting a restaurant, a grocery store, or a retail outlet, is the availability of a variety of products on the shelf or menu. As the nation’s supply chains face unprecedented challenges related to COVID-19, one of the most critical factors has been the ability to meet customer and public health needs in a reliable and timely manner. While each component of the transportation system has been important, the trucking industry has been at the very heart of it.
We fully appreciate all those considered essential, frontline workers and are thankful for their valor in showing up for work every day. Maybe not as visible among these workers are trucking and delivery drivers. On any day, truck drivers ensure that critical supplies reach the doors of Washington’s businesses, homes, and medical facilities. The drivers have accomplished this not only with great diligence and dedication, but often with great personal sacrifice.
As we move ahead on the road to recovery from COVID-19, we extend our sincere gratitude to the trucking industry – the companies and the drivers that keep our economy moving.
Sheri Call, Olympia