Letters to the Editor.

Zinn Hits Home on Hiroshima

Thanks for the great article by Howard Zinn in the August issue ("The Bombs of August"). It reminded me of an item I recently ran across in my files. I clipped it from the front page of The Wall Street Journal thirty-five years ago:

"Japan sought to settle World War II peacefully a year before surrendering, State Department documents released yesterday showed. Japan made an informal overture to Sweden, which informed the U.S. and Britain. The U.S. reminded Sweden that Allied terms were unconditional surrender, and Sweden then told Japan it would be useless to relay lesser offers."

If the United States had successfully pursued this peace feeler, it might have given heart to the dissident German leadership and led to an earlier peace in Europe, too. Then both the divided Korea and the divided Germany would have been avoided.

Norman B. Gesner Sanford, Florida

Is Zinn Wrong?

My only problem with Howard Zinn's analysis is that he may be wrong. A variety of sources indicate that the Japanese were preparing a last ditch, every-citizen-is-a-soldier approach to defeating an invasion.

Suicide craft were stockpiled, the Japanese public had been alerted as to its role, and the average citizen was instructed by the Emperor to "endure the unendurable."

Seeing both sides of the atomic bomb question doesn't necessarily mean I support more recent military debacles. On these, I often side with Zinn.

Finally, given the apparently fallen nature of human beings, it isn't clear to me why Zinn expects greedy, ambitious, and increasingly craven politicians to act in other than their own best interests. Holding politicians accountable at the ballot box is designed to result in more or less sane policies. If, and that is a big if, we are capable of self-government, then the underlying morality of society would act as a counterweight to bombing aspiring factories in the Sudan or cities in Japan.

Bill Wilmeth Ogden, Utah

Sentencing the Disabled to Poverty

In his otherwise excellent piece on the disability system's disincentives in regard to employment ("Getting to Work," August issue), Kenny Fries leaves out one important aspect of the problem.

From its inception, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has allowed a maximum monthly stipend of only 73 percent of the poverty level (currently $512) for single adult recipients. For "dual eligibles" like Fries (Social Security Disability Income with an SSI supplement), the stipend equals 78 percent of poverty (or $532 a month). What crime did we commit that justifies being sentenced to poverty by the federal government?

In 1992, the SSI Modernization Commission, appointed by President Bush and chaired by former Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Arthur Flemming, recommended that the monthly SSI grant be raised to 120 percent of the poverty level and that the resource limit be raised from $2,000 to $7,000. Bush promptly ignored his commission's recommendations and so did the then-Democratically controlled Congress.

Today, we keep hearing about a projected budget surplus of tens of billions of dollars. Is it too much to ask that the SSI Modernization Commission's recommendations be made a reality for those of us who are among this country's most vulnerable citizens?

Steve Weiss Portland, Oregon

Industrialized But Not Enlightened

Like Matthew Rothschild, I find that statements comparing the United States to "other civilized nations" sticks in my craw. However, Rothschild's August Editor's Note ("A Civilized Nation?") added to my already full craw when, as evidence to support his point that the "civilized" lens is inappropriate, he noted: "Ours is one of the only industrialized nations in the world that still uses capital punishment."

To me, "industrialized" is a euphemism for "civilized." Why would anyone assume that industrialization should yield more enlightened law?

Mark Solomon Westfield, Massachusetts

Don't Foster Fat Stereotypes

I love Molly Ivins, so I was especially disappointed with the graphic you chose to accompany her August column, "A Needy Bunch of Heirs."

While I'm sure we're all familiar with the "fat cat" archetype you were trying to invoke, this picture perpetuates a stereotypical image of fat people as greedy and slovenly.

And since, statistically speaking, fat people are more likely to be found among the poorer classes, it isn't even an accurate depiction of the social and economic inequalities Ivins's column decries.

By fostering prejudice about fat, you are completely in tune with mainstream cultural attitudes. Is that where The Progressive wants to be?

Amy Winter Brunswick, Maine

The Viability Question

All cheers for the article about Sarah Weddington (The Progressive Interview, August issue).

Roe v. Wade gives women the right to an abortion before viability of the fetus. But I know that many believe once the ovum is fertilized, it actually is a tiny human being. And they would consider the use of the morning-after pill to be murder.

I believe that a fertilized ovum is simply a single human cell, just like billions of others found in the body, each one with the potential of becoming a clone for a new human being.

Publishing an in-depth article on this, written by a biologist, would be helpful for all of us.

J.L. Hartz St. Joseph, Missouri

U.S. Prisoners Are Exploitable

In a time when we are confronted with an overwhelming number of issues concerning our safety and the future of our children, and when big things are going on globally, it is baffling to think that people are so misguided as to protest American prison labor ("Youth Oppose Prison Labor," August issue).

Our low-cost American lifestyle is subsidized by the many preindustrialized countries and their women and children, who have no choice but to work for less than fifty cents a day. All that cheap stuff we can't live without that we buy daily in the local discount mart or grocery store would cost more than three times what it does now if it were made in the United States in factories that paid minimum wage.

Distasteful as it might be to rank the value of human life, I feel much more comfortable exploiting, or in this case utilizing, American prisoners than women and children in less advantaged countries, whose only crime is to be the wrong gender.

Georgia L. Solomon Westfield, Massachusetts

Twinkling Applause

I was bemused by Ruth Conniff's description of the applause at the Green Party convention ("It's Not Easy Being Green," August issue). Conniff stated: "The audience didn't just clap, it `twinkled,' wiggling the fingers of both hands in the air during speeches."

Quakers must have infiltrated the convention. Since some Quakers practice unprogrammed or silent worship, they show their appreciation after a talk or performance by raising their arms and wiggling their fingers.

Jim Hightower should not have been alarmed.

Rich Van Dellen Rochester, Minnesota