Think of the elephants
The Advocate should be ashamed of its mindless puff piece on the Melha Shrine Circus. you missed the real news story and instead published an article that ignores the endless suffering of the elephants and tigers and the growing public outrage about their treatment. Why not cover that story?
These circus animals learn to perform through the use of inhumane and painful training techniques. They spend most of their lives confined and being transported in trains and trucks that have no ventilation, no climate control and in a manner that forces them to stand in their own waste and go without food or water. Elephants have to keep moving to maintain healthy joints, legs and feet because in the wild they travel up to 30 miles a day. Circus elephants develop arthritis, painful foot infections and tuberculosis. When they are not performing, they are chained by one or two legs.
As this circus cruelty is brought to light, more and more communities are banning this form of entertainment. Across the U.S.A. there are now 35 partial or full bans on circus animals in municipalities in 18 states. The U.K., Greece, India, and Columbia have banned circuses from their entire countries. We need to do the same.
The real drug problem
We’ve heard lots of lip service from Governor Baker about the need to do something about drug addiction. I heard something shocking. There’s a peanut factory in Springfield which employs mostly pre-release prison inmates. While this seems like pure altruism on the surface, it looks to me like the same old exploitation routine. Keep our jails full of folks with minor drug offenses, and then use them for cheap labor, displacing regular workers with full pay and benefits. I knew they were using “slave” prison labor down south to keep costs down, but I had no idea Massachusetts got in on the act.
The war on drugs will never end because too many people are making money off it. The prison industrial complex is promised full beds. Prisoners are a source of cheap labor. Gun manufacturers are making money hand over fist on guns used on both sides. It’s no secret millions of dollars of guns are smuggled into Mexico and Central America so cartels can wield their iron heel on the terrorized citizenry. People fleeing the horrors of these countries are detained at our multi-billion dollar privatized detention facilities. And companies are profiting from building border walls. San Jose Mercury reporter Gary Webb lost his life reporting on the connection between the CIA and the crack addiction of South Central L.A. to make money for covert operations in Central America. Considering that drugs are cheaper and more plentiful than ever I ask, “Is this still going on?” How is it our biggest suppliers, Afghanistan and Colombia, are also the home of so much U.S. military involvement?
We’ll never see sensible drug policy which actually cuts down on crime and addiction, such as decriminalizing crack and heroin and opening clinics that allow prescribed patients to get their doses. Vancouver, B.C., and Switzerland do this. Addicts can hold jobs and break the cycle of jail and streets. As their lives improve, most have the courage to quit. Organized crime and drug gangs have been put out of business there. Drug overdoses are uncommon. This will never happen here, because too many people are getting rich off drugs. Addicts’ lives matter! As a society we need to stop demonizing them and profiting off them.
More Martian Gardens
As a composer and music educator, I am writing to express my support for WMUA’s Martian Gardens, a program that is widely respected throughout the United States.
Universities and due process are on collision courses in a number of areas, including matters relating to adjunct faculty rights and the mysteries of tenure and promotion. The cancellation of Martian Gardens is a small, but important and interesting example of action without evidence, proof, or democratic process. Composers of national and international repute look to Max Shea’s program as the finest of its kind. Its cancellation is a loss to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to the composers who have been represented over the years, and to the listening public.
