PRIME EVIL
One of the cover stories of your Web edition states that local experts insist the terrorists "aren't crazy or evil" [What Now?" WW, Sept. 19, 2001].

I agree they weren't crazy. But you'll never persuade me they, and their comrades, aren't evil. In some ways, they've outdone the Nazis in their absolute disregard for innocent life.

Carl Loeb
New York City

WAR IS NOT A JUST RESPONSE
Justice, to be real, requires careful thought, reasoned response with consideration of all consequences and repercussions, compassion, and a higher concern than vengeance or reprisal alone [What Now?" WW, Sept. 19, 2001]. War, with full might and fury, is not a just response to violation--even if it is severe.

As a war veteran of Vietnam, having flown well over 100 bombing missions in Southeast Asia, I am horrified by the prospect of unleashing war on any nation, especially for the actions of a few. War for an injury or assault reflects not wisdom, but rather an emotional lashing out of fear and anger. It is our lowest, least human, least humane, least inspired and least just (and, I might add for those so identified, least Christian) response.

James A. Spake
Southwest 35th Avenue

CRUDE LOGIC
Just when I start thinking that some semblance of a new vision and new direction for our country will come from the horror of the past week, I'm hit with the same old American arrogance and greed: "[W]e're going to look at that map and see all of our oil..." (gone) [What Now?" WW, Sept. 19, 2001]. Our oil, Mr. Hatfield? I guess it's all well and good to talk about looking beyond ourselves and our egocentric, materialistic culture and reaching out helping hands, etc., but dammit! Hands off OUR oil!

Mr. Hatfield, I'm disappointed.

Lon Nelson
Southeast Clinton Street

STARS AND STRIKES FOREVER
In the Sept. 19 Scoreboard, WW writes that because of the terrorist attacks on America, the City of Portland wins the upper hand in the ongoing labor agreement negotiation with the District Council of Trade Unions.

Please review the preceding sentence again; ridiculous, isn't it?

WW further states that it will be tougher for the 1,800 employees of the DCTU to "play the public sympathy card." Public perception of DCTU voting to strike (during this trying time) will rightfully be that the City of Portland categorically presented an unfair contract proposal. What could possibly be more American (democratic) than labor unions?

Carol S. Justice
Southeast 97th Avenue

BLUE ON THE INSIDE
It was good to see you bring some scrutiny to [Office of Independent Police Review] Director Richard Rosenthal's career as an L.A. prosecutor, but your analysis missed two crucial points ["The Riddle of Richard Rosenthal," Aug. 22, 2001].

First, by focusing on questions about Rosenthal's integrity, you failed to give proper weight to statements concerning his bias. Bias is not just a matter of out-and-out prejudice. It may also operate in subtle ways, creating blind spots and influencing whose story gets believed in a disputed situation. In Rosenthal's case, bias seems to have surfaced in both ways. You quote attorney Charles Linder as saying, "Richard tends to believe the good guys, or the guys who are supposed to be the good guys.... [H]e doesn't ask the hard follow-up questions. I think if he sees [misconduct] he will be tenacious in going after it. The question is, will he see it?" For the director of the so-called Independent Police Review division, the tendency to automatically believe police, and to simply overlook wrongdoing, is obviously a fault.

Worse (and this leads to the second point), these biases are being institutionalized in the IPR, perhaps as a result of Auditor Gary Blackmer's own bias concerning who is qualified to oversee the police. Of the seven IPR staff positions, the four which have been filled have apparently all gone to law-enforcement insiders. Rosenthal has worked closely with the police during his tenure as a prosecutor. IPR investigator Mike Hess is a former Hillsboro reserve officer. And the two intake staff were reportedly transferred from similar positions in Internal Affairs; they are both retired police sergeants. In fact, Blackmer himself used to work as a management analyst in the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and a "self-employed consultant to the Portland Police Bureau" (Voters' Pamphlet, May-November 1998).

It seems that, amidst complaints about police investigating police, Blackmer settled for the next-worst thing. The new system keeps most investigations firmly in the hands of Internal Affairs, and where "outside" oversight is applied, the outsiders will really be insiders--people themselves well in tune with the police perspective. Thus Blackmer builds a bias into the system, to the detriment of both the public and the truth.

Kristian Williams
Portland Copwatch
Southeast Belmont Street

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
Regarding "The Good Americans" [WW, Aug. 15, 2001], my great-grandfathers, Josef Micka and Frank Zumpfe, were original settlers of the Klamath basin, moving here after the U.S. government promised irrigation water in exchange for farming.

My great-grandparents' Malin ranch has remained in family hands. In 1999, I visited Malin for its 95th-anniversary celebration. I reconnected with relatives, sat in the home that my grandfather built, wandered through the Malin Cemetery, and dug my toes into the soil, feeling my connections to a piece of earth.

Today, the lands around Malin are barren, farms are failing, and war has been declared over the Upper Klamath headwaters. While I worry that our land may be lost forever, other questions come. What about thousands of eagles arriving to overwinter and finding a dry lakebed? How will they survive? My family could start a new life elsewhere. The eagles aren't so lucky, and the thought of them dying, confused and exhausted, makes me sick. What about the suckerfish, traditional foods of the Klamath Indians? My family's farm appropriated ancestral tribal lands. Shouldn't the Indian's considerations rightfully come first?

The government encouraged my great-grandparents to farm a desert. A recent drive down I-5 revealed farmland being turned over for the building of industrial sites. Use precious water to farm a desert? Bulldoze farmland to build industry? Does any of this make sense?

My heart breaks for my family, and bleeds for the earth. If we're to share this planet we must take a wider view. When contracts quit working, it's time for revision. We must do the right thing, even when it's difficult.

Susan (Zumpfe-Micka) Pesznecker
Milwaukie