Send your letters to the WA Free Press, PMB #178, 1463 E Republican St, Seattle 98112, or [email protected]. Please include your full name and phone number for verification. Keep them short. Letters may be edited for length, spelling and grammar. Letters printed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the WA Free Press. Letters which respond to WA Free Press articles will be given precedence.

Jokes Not Funny

This subscriber finds himself reeling from your decision to include "Polish Jokes" under the heading of "Good Ideas from Different Countries" in the Nov/Dec issue. Actually, I don't feel that racial and ethnic joking is one of the better ideas to come out of Europe, but that is not my main problem with your decision.

I am totally shocked and awed that you would include this type of material in what is generally a progressive paper. How does this type of information help us make progress in understanding each other better? Do you really believe that all people of Polish descent have somehow put the pain of these incessant jokes behind them? Why would you want to risk bringing it back, after thirty years or more? Please don't tell me that all people of Polish descent are genetically predisposed to let such "jokes" roll off them like so much water from a duck's back.

Your inclusion of the claim, "If you've ever known a Pole..." is a scary generalization, seemingly much more regressive in spirit than progressive, and highly offensive to this reader. As a man of African descent, I know how divisive, patronizing, and humiliating this coded language is, and I do not accept--nor will I tolerate--the representation and propagation of these types of "jokes" as good humor. This doesn't constitute true, creative humor; it represents the lowest-common-denominator tendency to amuse ourselves at the expense of others.

Actually, I enjoy much of your paper and usually find it to be humorous as well as provocative. With your decision to include ethnic "jokes" in your latest issue, you've insulted my intelligence while simultaneously lowering your standards.

Robert Wilhite, Seattle

Editor's reply: I'm a bit perplexed. Did you really read the jokes? If you did, you would find that they are not jokes about Poles, but jokes that are told by Poles. The term "Polish Jokes" in this article means jokes that are from Poland. My Polish friend told them to me and was happy to see this article in print. If you read the jokes and don't find them funny, then perhaps you just don't appreciate Polish humor. As another WA Free Press volunteer told me: "Cultural differences should be enjoyed, not denied." For reader reference, the article "Polish Jokes" can be viewed on the web at www.washingtonfreepress.org/72/goodIdeas.htm. --Doug Collins

Truth can be Comforting

Let me start by saying that I love your paper. I have only recently come across your wonderful paper and would like to receive more if it is possible. I am currently incarcerated and find such "true news" to be uniquely comforting. I would be more than happy to contribute artwork or even some stamps for postage if you would need or be interested in them. Thank you for the truth.

W. Clary, Texas

Editor's reply: Thanks much for the sentiments and offer of help. We send gratis subscriptions to prisoners, and we have signed you up for one already. However, if you are able to send some postage to help, that is much appreciated, because we are working on stopping the red ink, and every bit helps. As for art submissions, we'd be glad to review them. Please keep in mind that we generally get more than we can fit in the paper, and we can't print everything that we receive, but we're always happy to receive submissions from people such as yourself who know and like the paper. --Doug Collins

Keep Vigilant for Women's Rights

Over the last century we in the United States have reached a different view of our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. We see them as equal partners in this journey through life. We no longer view them as chattel or objects. Instead, we value their intelligence, abilities and the richness of their diversity and rejoice in the contributions they have made and are making to the fabric of our existence.

However, women's freedoms must not be limited if women are to continue to thrive and contribute to their full potential. Many of those freedoms have been won through the long and arduous campaigns by women that are recorded in our history. Among the many freedoms won are the right to vote, the right to reproductive liberty and the right to equal educational and occupational opportunities.

But the right to reproductive liberty is under challenge by men who would abolish this freedom and by Bush administration policies. Examples are attempts to outlaw the so-called "partial-birth abortion," requirements that young women under 17 obtain parental or judicial consent for abortions, and efforts to eliminate accurate reproductive information.

All of the above are "slippery slope" efforts--that is, they mask the true goal of eliminating women's rights to reproductive liberty and curtailing one of women's hard-won freedoms. And once reproductive liberty is taken, what freedom will be under assault next?

We must be vigilant in the defense of women's rights and freedoms! For once gone, can they ever be retrieved?

Howard Pellett, Anacortes

Monkey on the Donkey's Back

Governing Democrats are sitting on their hands refusing to walk their talk. Washington State desperately needs election reform. The Governor-in-question, Christine Gregoire and democrat leaders talk reform, only presenting solutions that would have little effect. Whatever the outcome of the court challenges, the democrats loose. It is now known they have facilitated the climate that allows greater fraud by those who would vote illegally.

Democrats, failing to correct past problems and deliberately avoiding any new laws to effect a legal vote, show their colors. Democrats recognize that going light on crime has the effect of generating for them more votes. It is common sense that those who commit crimes would more likely vote for those who would reduce the consequences. Another support for this premise is the differences between rallies or demonstrations for Republican and democrat issues. Democrat issue demonstrations tend to be more rowdy and less law abiding than those supporting Republican issues. Republicans believe in responsibility for one's own actions, democrat leaders have shown they do not, though they may talk the talk. So, if I am committing crimes, who would I vote for? Those who would want me in jail longer?

The people are fed up, law-abiding democrats are fed up with corruption in government. Attempts to shore up the democrat illegal voter base is back-firing on them. Law-abiding citizens want their votes to count, legally. The devaluing or inflating of the vote by allowing individual fraud to continue is the monkey on the donkey's back.

Roger W Hancock, Auburn

Editor's reply: Talk about voter fraud! You might not have read our cover stories last issue on nationwide fraud in the Presidential race last November, fraud which overwhelmingly favored Bush over Kerry (see www.washingtonfreepress.org/73). In any case, although some ex-felons may have voted illegally in our state, it's not at all clear yet that they would particularly favor Democrats. American voters are notorious for not voting in their own self-interest (see Brian King's book review of "What's the Matter with Kansas?" in this issue). Besides, what about the possibility of illegal Republican votes in Snohomish and Yakima counties which we can never know about because of those counties' touch-screen voting and lack of verifiable paper trail? (see good related article in Seattle Weekly, "The Minus Touch" by Rick Anderson, 1-26-05). (Doug Collins)