I know the political dangers that Thomas Nelson has faced all too well ["Holy Warrior," WW, July 21, 2004]. As his summer receptionist in the years both before and after 9/11, I noticed Mr. Nelson's office experience dramatic changes. While once replete with "billable-hours" in the years before he was a well-known peace activist (or perhaps before 9/11), the firm has experienced a financial drought, which I suggest is related to Tom's peace projects.

It was after a peaceful 2002 guest editorial in The Oregonian, urging changes in U.S. foreign policy in regard to Palestine, that he and the editorial co-authors started receiving death threats. PacifiCorp later disappeared from the client list. [Ed. Note: Nelson's former firm, Lovinger Norling Kaufmann, continues to represent PacifiCorp.]

And what about me, the lowly receptionist? I first experienced the overzealous mood of "war on terror" when returning from a year study-abroad in the U.K. in 2003, when I was accused of visits to China and lying about what countries I had visited. Luckily, this only caused me to miss a couple of connecting flights. Then I got the "special treatment" the next time I was returning to the U.S. later that summer. And then there was the big incident last year when my English spouse, who was applying for permanent residency in the U.S., had her application mysteriously disappear from U.S. Embassy in London. Her file only mysteriously reappeared after Earl Blumenauer's congressional liaison kindly initiated a congressional inquiry on my behalf.

OK. Maybe these are all cases of mistaken identity. Maybe I'm being paranoid. Maybe the folks at immigration have just have a really bad filing system. But tell that to Brandon Mayfield, who went to jail for nothing! In the war on terror, I pray to God that the problems we are experiencing are only accidental computer problems, and not purposely caused human problems. I pray that the computer which said I was involved in illegal activities in China (or in China at all) is fixable. But I have a bad feeling that there is a monkey-wrench gang, in human form, behind these persecutions.

David Christensen
Northeast 19th Avenue

SCAPEGOAT HUNT

Thank-you for your timely and compelling article featuring Tom Nelson and his tireless advocacy for some of our most responsible and respected citizens here in Portland ["Holy Warrior," WW, July 21, 2004]. The irony is that they would need legal advocacy at all; but given the Bush administration's need for scapegoats, they have also become some of the most vulnerable and victimized citizens here and elsewhere.

So why the need for scapegoats? What is it the Bush administration doesn't want us to look at too closely? Is it the failed Iraq invasion? Is it failed U.S. foreign policy? I mean, how can we have credible U.S. foreign policy when we support and fund Israeli apartheid practices and then sermonize about the need for "democracy" in the Middle East? Or do they need scapegoats as a cover for the largest transfer of mass wealth in the history of the U.S.?

The Bush administration and any FBI officials who may have colluded with the Justice Department to get Brandon Mayfield arrested are the ones who should be the subject of an investigation, not people peacefully practicing the religion of their choice.

Carol Dennis
Southeast 12th Avenue

RIGHT ABOUT LEFTIES

The Nose may have inadvertently been more accurate than he meant. Note this line from his "Pissin' Away Money at City Hall" piece [July 21, 2004]: "Nice idea, but since that's this year's haul--arrived at after years of lefty increases--anyway, it's nothing to raise a pint about."

It's the "lefty increases" part: I suspect he meant--or even wrote--"hefty," but the use of "lefty" was right on the mark.

Steve Schopp
Tualatin

Copy Chief Ian Gillingham responds: Apropos though it may have been, "lefty increases" was indeed a typo committed at the final editing stage. WW intended no disparagement of tax-and-spend liberals.