WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. Six Teachers The Cultural War continues ["Going Both Ways," 500 Words, WW, Dec. 1, 1999]. Six rank-and-file members of the educational establishment make a case to their superior on behalf of a social perspective which clashes with contemporary trends prevailing among the cognoscenti. I fail to see at what point they attempt to "shred the First Amendment." Beginning at the end, you link their action to that of Lon Mabon's latest initiative yet fail to cite any evidence. Additionally, though they failed to utilize the proper protocols in pleading their case, and were impolitic by distributing the memo to their peers, their proposal did not request the removal of any texts currently in use by the district, but merely that an alternative perspective be made available. You described Dr. Satinover's book as frightening, again citing no evidence beyond your prejudice against biblical interpretation, social analysis and medical research which conflicts with your worldview. You fail to inform us of the doctor's credentials, or lack thereof. You failed to identify who defines the politics and policy of the American Academy of Pediatrics, while the extreme left-wing agenda of the NEA and the APA have been clearly established in the Culture Wars. You assaulted NARTH while exalting the above, which prompts me to ask the question: Whose Science Is It Anyway? No one claimed or denied that the Cleveland Six acted in response to the "coalition." However, their action would be the natural response for conservatives who are employed in education. Life is full of coincidence; and truth often appears stranger than fiction. Edward J. Borges-Silva Canby Teachers Sick I am a former Cleveland High School student (Class of '99) who is openly bisexual. I was at first shocked when I heard about the controversy going on there, for I always felt safe and accepted during my four years there ["Going Both Ways," 500 Words, WW, Dec. 1, 1999]. My shock soon turned to anger, however, when I realized that even though I'm not there anymore, many of my gay, lesbian and bisexual friends still attend Cleveland, and must be subjected to this atmosphere of intolerance and ignorance on a daily basis. Did these six teachers ever stop to think how incredibly uncomfortable it must make some of their own students feel, just to know that their teacher believes that their lifestyle makes them "severely abnormal" or "sick"? Although I personally was lucky enough to avoid such discrimination from Cleveland students, I knew a few gay students who were constantly tortured with taunts of "dyke," "faggot," "cocksucker," or in several cases, much worse. Being a gay high school student is hard enough because of other close-minded students, and I've always felt that going to a teacher for support would be a source of sanctuary from the surrounding hatred. Apparently not anymore. During my time at Cleveland, I read just about every book in the school library dealing with the subject of homosexuality, and I never got the impression that any of them promoted or encouraged homosexual behavior, but instead promoted tolerance of those who live different lifestyles. It seems these six teachers failed to realize that encouragement and acceptance are two entirely different concepts. Here is my message to those six, and any other schoolteacher that believes homosexuality is wrong: Instead of teaching your students to persecute and alienate those who are different, why not teach them to attempt to befriend their fellow students, and pay no concern to whether it was Eve or Steve they bedded last night? (It's nobody's business anyway!) If you're homophobic, that's your choice, but you don't need to cram your beliefs down your students' throats. They're almost adults, and believe it or not, they can think for themselves. Oh, and by the way, I hope one of your kids is gay, so maybe you will think twice before telling your own flesh and blood that they have a "soul sickness." As far as I'm concerned, people who harbor hatred toward others for no reason have some of the sickest souls around. Toni LaRiccia Southeast 10th Avenue Cut the Dex "Phone-Book Gypsies" (WW, Nov. 17, 1999) overlooked an important environmental problem: U.S. West's phone books (1.4 million in 1999) contain a substantial percentage of fiber from the old-growth temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Canada. The U.S. West books trumpet that they are "40 percent post-consumer content." But where does the rest of the paper come from? The non-recycled fiber comes from Pacifica Paper, whose British Columbia mills include the infamous mill in Port Alberni that was the final destination for old-growth trees clearcut in Clayoquot Sound. Pacifica buys the pulp for this mill from MacMillan Bloedel, one of the largest logging companies in Canada. Although Mac-Blo says it intends to stop clearcutting old-growth rainforests, it has not done so yet. The purchase of Mac-Blo by Weyerhauser makes these changes uncertain. Other pulp sources in British Columbia are even worse. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, about 90 percent of the forests being logged in British Columbia are old-growth, with trees up to 1,200 years old, salmon, wildlife and untold genetic resources at risk. Clearcut harvesting is being used in about 95 percent of the harvests, and in almost all B.C. Forest Districts, the cut exceeds growth rates. U.S. West sends three books yearly to everyone with a telephone, whether they want them or not. The problem is, the more books they distribute, the more they can charge their advertisers. Rainforest Relief challenges U.S. West to drop old-growth paper sources and switch to demand-only distribution for businesses. Until then, people can call U.S. West at 1-800-422-8793 and ask to be taken off distribution lists, or that a reduced number of books be sent to offices. Charles Lockwood Portland Chapter, Rainforest Relief We the Opposition In Willamette Week's recent discussion of the WTO ["Why the Outrage?" WW, Dec. 1, 1999], Samuel Saenz is quoted as saying, "...trade is not fundamentally about jobs. It's about creating wealth within the community...." So what constitutes community wealth? Suppose a community has a shoe factory which can't compete in the global marketplace and is abruptly closed, leaving an unemployment rate of 50 percent as well as a dramatic increase in suicide, family violence and theft. Then suppose the factory owner trades all of the equipment to Indonesia for cash, which he then trades on the currency markets or buries in his garden. Does this scenario create wealth within the community? How about if he uses this cash to buy fine art to hang in the City Hall? Or what if he uses the money to convert his abandoned factory into a prison enterprise, which he operates for the community to incarcerate its most disruptive unemployed while paying the remainder to watch prisoners stare at the wall? Are these examples of increased community wealth? On the other hand, what if the factory is converted to manufacturing something like water-purification canisters using recycled plastic and charcoal made from the local scrub oak, an endeavor which required much skilled and unskilled labor? Isn't this what most of us think of as "creating wealth within the community"? And isn't it fundamentally about jobs? This analysis may be too simplistic for Wall Street economists, but I think it helps to explain why tens of thousands of ordinary citizens marched in Seattle. We see that free trade does not create wealth for everyone, nor does it necessarily benefit communities or the environment. And if the plutocrats and their minions at the WTO continue to ignore this reality, they may eventually have to spend a lot more of their wealth on gas masks, pepper spray and riot police. Monty McKinney Northwest Skyline Boulevard - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published December 8, 1999