Celebrating Vote on Nuclear Plant
On February 24, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 not to renew the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant after 2012: a powerful and exhilarating “No!” to years of mismanagement and neglect. Unless the Senate reverses its decision, and the House also approves an extension, the plant will close forever in exactly two years’ time.
Such success pays tribute to decades of hard work on the parts of local activists in Western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, among them Deb Katz, Dr. Ira Helfand, Paul Gunther, Randy Kehler, Harvey Schaktman, Chad Simmons and Chris Williams. Thank you, one and all. For more information or to support their work, go to www.vt.citizen.org.
Christian McEwen
Northampton
Term Limits Needed
The government that cannot or will not serve the best interests of the majority of its citizens and their posterity and the nation, the “general welfare,” security, and government “of, by, and for the people,” is not a true democracy. On the contrary, it is undemocratic. That is the prevailing attitude and condition of the two “major” political parties, holding desperately to the obsolete and anachronistic Electoral College that worships the idea that “the winner takes all.” That is the dictatorial and tyrannical attitude of the Vince Lombardis and the Leo Durochers, who loudly and and proudly proclaimed that “winning is everything” and”nice guys finish last,” respectively.
The 5-4 decision of the current Supreme Court [which overturned restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates] has reaffirmed the arrogance and non-democratic character of both the Democratic and Republican parties. They both despise the attitude of those of us who are authentic independent thinkers and voters. Tragically, violations of the Declaration of Independence continue day by day, year after year, and in every election at every level of government in these dis-United States of America.
The only solution is for all self-proclaimed independent citizens and voters to exercise their right to popular sovereignty and to vote term limits for all elected members of the oligarchies and mis-representatives, Democrats and Republicans, and to elect authentic patriots, genuinely altruistic, who will honestly serve the best interests of all the people, rather than themselves and their special interests.
Jack D. Phillips
Springfield
Come Clean About Tom Tomorrow
Every week, when I pick up the Advocate, the first page I turn to is the one containing This Modern World, Tom Tomorrow’s brilliant political comic strip. That is, I used to turn to This Modern World. The Advocate no longer carries it. Instead, one can find the aptly named Mild Abandon, a one-panel cartoon that appears designed to upset or offend no one, but that fails to evince actual laughter.
Why the switch? Is it a copyright issue? Did Tom Tomorrow’s syndicator jack up the rights fees? We may never know. There has been no explanation from the Advocate. Perhaps you were hoping no one would notice. Instead, you have given me one less reason to read the Advocate.
Peter D. Steinberg
Easthampton
Editor’s Note: As Peter Steinberg notes correctly, the Valley Advocate recently dropped This Modern World as a regular feature. Last month, we began publishing E.J. Pettinger’s Mild Abandon, recipient of an AltWeekly Award from the Association of Alternative Newspapers in 2006. The decision to drop one cartoon and add another is based less on budgetary considerations than on a desire to try something new and to build upon a long tradition of exposing our readers to a wide variety of contemporary voices. Readers can continue to follow This Modern World online at www.thismodernworld.com.
Also, in last week’s issue we illustrated a notice of the showing of Death and Taxes (graphic at bottom), a new film about war tax resistance, with a picture of a poster (Uncle Sam with gun) promoting a 1993 film, also known as Death and Taxes but on a different subject (the life of Gordon Kahl, who advocated a broader severing of relationship between citizens and the government). We apologize for the confusion.
