Eastern Illinois University The Keep
The Post Amerikan (1972-2004) The Post Amerikan Project
8-1-2000
Volume 29, Number 4
Post Amerikan
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Recommended Citation Post Amerikan, "Volume 29, Number 4" (2000). The Post Amerikan (1972-2004). 248. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/post_amerikan/248
This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the The Post Amerikan Project at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Post Amerikan (1972-2004) by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A tax on junk fo_od? Freedom of (hate) speech CD & book reviews
BLOOMINGTON/ NORMAL VOLUME 29 AUGUST /SEPTEMBER2000
ALTERNATE ROUTE
Discover alternatives to:
Ritalin, gasoline, housing, and mainstream press
' ..: . ' �Ol �9 11 'uo16u1woo1e �Ol �9 i1 'uo16u1woo1e , 89 � JaqwnN l!WJad �Sti'E xoe 'O'cl P!Bd a6e1sod ·s·n Ue>j!JaW\f JSOd a1e1:1 >une paisanbal:f UO!J:>aJJO� SSaJpp\f - BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL VOLUME 29 NUMBER FOUR AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER2000 '======::::======�/ In this Issue:
Page 3 Community news Page 12 Connect the dots by Mother Wind Pages 4-6 Alternative houses, ureuse" structures Page 13 Freedom of (hate) speech by Deborah Wiatt Page 7 A tax on junk food? Pages 14-15 Alternatives to Ritalin Page 8 Mental illness awareness Pages 16-17 Reviews, reviews, reviews Page 9 Poetry Page--Poets, Where are you? Pages 18-19 Mind Candy--zine reviews Pages 10-11 Fuel Phenomenon/Alterna�ives to gasoline Page 22 Labor news
About us Pick up a copy Pick up a copy Copies of the Post Amerikan are now The Post Amerikan is an independent Copies of the Post Amerikan are now available for free at the following locations: community newspaper providing informa available for free at the following locations: tion and analysis that is screened out of or Bloomington Bloomington down played by establishment news sources. AIDS Task Force, 313 N. Main AIDS Task Force, 313 N. Main We are a non-profit, worker-run collective About Books, 221 E. Front About Books, 221 E. Front that exists as an alternative to the corporate & & 9 Barnes Noble, Veterans Rt. Barnes & Noble, Veterans & Rt. 9 media. Bloomington Public Library, 205 E. Olive Bloomington Public Library, 205 E. Olive Common Ground, 516 N. Main Common Ground, 516 N. Main We put out six issues a year. Staff members CoffeeWorks, 608 N. Main Gaston's Upper Cut, 409 N. Main take turns as "coordinator." All writing, Gaston's Upper Cut, 409 N. Main Heartland Community College, Raab Rd. typing, editing, graphics, photography, Heartland Community College Adademic Lizard's Lounge, 612 N. Main St. pasteup, and distribution are done on a Support Center, 1226 Towanda Ave. Shockwaves, 415 N. Main volunteer basis. You are invited to volunteer Last Chance Newstand, 404 N. Main Twin City Exchange, 411 N. Main your talents. Lizard's Lounge, 612 N. Main St. Medusa's, 420 N. Madison Normal the Movie Fan, 401 N. Veterans (Cub Food Plaza) Most of our material and inspiration for Acme Comics, 115 W. North Mystic Link, 1206 Towanda Ave. Su.4 material comes from the community. The Babbitt's Books, 104 W. North Shockwaves, 415 N. Main Post Amerikanwelcomes stories, graphics, Co-op Records, 503 S. Main Twin City Exchange, 411 N. Main Coffeehouse, 114 E. Beaufort photos, letters, and new tips from our N.ormal - readers. If you'd like to join us, call 828-4473 Deadpan Alley Records, 107 W. North Acme Comics, 115 W. North and leave a message on our answering Koffee Kup, 205 W. North Babbitt's Books, 104 W. North Mother Murphy's, 111 W. North machine. We will get back to you as soon Co-op Records, 503 S. fyfain Mother Wind's, 1410 1/2 S. Main as we can. Don't worry if it takes a while the Coffeehouse, 114 E. Beaufort Movie Fan, 202C. W. North we don't meet every week. Deadpan Alley Records, 107 W. North Normal Public Library, 206 W. College Ave. Koffee Kup, 205 W. North An alternative newspaper depends directly Mother Murphy's, 111 W. North Peoria on a community of concerned people for Normal Public Library, 206 W. College Ave. BiqrcleBus_ existence. We believe it is very important to keep a newspaper like this around. If you think so too, then please support us by telling your friends about the paper, donating money to the printing of the paper, What's your What's your and telling our advertisers you saw their new ad in Post Amerikan. new adcrress? adcrress? When you move, be sure to send us your new When you move, be sure to send us your new address so your subscription gets to you. address so your subscription gets to you. Your Post Amerikan will not be forwarded (it's Your Post Amerikan will not be forwarded (it's · like junk mail-no kidding!). Fill out this like junk mail-no kidding!). Fill out this handy form with your new address and return handy form with your new address and return Post Amerikan it to us, P.O. Box 3452, Bloomington, IL 61702. Subscriptions to the are it to us, P.O. Box 3452, Bloomington, IL 61702. available for the low price of $6.00 per year for six complete issues. Street______Please send a check (made payable to the Post Street.______
Amerikan) to: Post Amerikan, P.O. Box 3452 City/State/Zip ______Bloomington, IL 61702. City/State/Zip ____ This issue of Post Amerikan Due Date: Due Date: The due date for submitting articles to the is brought to you by ... The due date for submitting articles to the Post Amerikan is: (please laser print your Post Amerikan is: (please laser print your articles in columns of 3" using Palatino lOpt. articles in columns of 3" using Palatino lOpt. David, Linda, Ralph type if possible.); or submit via e-mail at: type if possible.) [email protected] and Sherrin Sept15
PAGE2 POST AMERIKAN AUGUST /SEPTEMBER2000 Community News
News from Advocacy Council BPL's adult for Human Rights
reading program Did you know?
Adults now have the opportunity to be When we were struggling to get a gay /lesbian rewarded for reading. Bloomington Public clause added to Bloomington's anti Library will offer a reading program for adults discrimination ordinance four years ago, the eighteen years or older. registration for community came together like never before to "Branch Out with Reading" begins September push for its passage. When it and a similar 11. Participants can register at the reference proposed ordinance in Normal were defeated, desk or at any bookmobile stop. The program, almost everyone disappeared. In 1998 the which continues to November 11, is easy and death of gay student Matthew Shepherd A memorial fund in memory of Luellen for offers many valuable prizes. readers pace evoked a candlelight vigil on the ISU Quad Illinois NOW has been established at themselves based on their own schedule. that drew hundreds of people, but a follow-up Commerce Bank 1500 E. College Ave., Normal. Participants can win in one of three different meeting a week later to talk about hate crimes categories depending on how many books are legislation only attracted a handful of people. read. Sign up for Advocacy Council e-mail The goal of equal rights requires an ongoing updates For more information call the Bloomington struggle; the days and months between Public Library at 838-6091. ordinance battles and candlelight vigils Are you on-line? Looking for up-to-the-minute provide prime opportunities for working behind information on glbta events and news in your the scenes to change our lives for the better. community? Then the Advocacy Council e-mail Equal i"ights can only be achieved if we work update program is for you. constantly, continuously, to change the laws. GLT recycled music sale Have we come a long way since the fall of 1995, The weekly e-mails consist of information on when ACHR was formed? Yes, but we still upcoming ACHR events as well as other have a long way to go. activities sponsored by glbta organizations in Looking for a great way to get rid of old music the Bloomington-Normal and central Illinois stuff? Donate your old records, CDs, cassettes, We can't continue to put out a monthly areas. Short synopses of local, state artd sheet music, stereo equipment and musical newsletter and weekly email update if no one national news stories also are included with each instruments to the 9thAnnual GLT Recycled reads it, nor can we continue to send out 300 e-mail. newsletters a month ifwe don't have funds or · Music Sale! We will turn your musical castoffs into cash for the GLT Equipment Fund. Drop-off volunteers to help us prepare the mailing. If The purpose of the weekly postings is to keep points are set up all over central Illinois for you find this newsletter to be a valuable service our community abreast of activities that may your convenience now through August 7. Take · to the community, drop us a line by e-mail have been announced after the Rainbow your no-longer-needed musical stuffto: ([email protected]) or leave a message on our Connection goes to press. We also intend to use phone line (309-830-2521). the e-mail updates to quickly mobilize Bloomington Public Library, 205 E. Olive, community members to contact elected officials Bloomington Luellen Laurenti, civil rights activist, when gay-supportive legislation is being McLean County Museum of History, 200 N. remembered by many deliberated. Main, Bloomington Horine's Pianos Plus, 1336 E. Empire, Luellen Laurenti, a local activist who believed To sign up for this free service simply send a Bloomington in equal rights for all people, died June 17. message to the Advocacy Council at Schnucks, 1701 E. Empire, Bloomington [email protected]. We will then send an e In her role as lobbyist for the Illinois Chapter mail i{lvitation that the receiver must reply to College Hills Mall Customer Service Desk, of the National Organization for Women, before he/ she can be added to the subscription Veterans Parkway and College Ave., Normal Luellen worked endless hours to gain support for list. Normal Public Library, 206 W. College, equal rights for women. One of her most recent Normal lobbying efforts was an attempt to defeat a bill · Thumbs down Vitesse Cycle Shop, 206 S. Linden, Normal that would have denied Medicaid funding of Twin City Self Storage, 2019 Eagle Road, abortions. While the bill was passed by the -To Southern Baptists for overwhelmingly Normal General Assembly, Gov. George Ryan later voting to rebuke president Clinton for vetoed the measure. proclaiming June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Horine's Pianos Plus, 8516 N. Knoxville, Peoria Month and for his appointment of openly gay Lakeview Museum, 1125 W. Lake, Peoria Luelle!\ also served for many years as the James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg. Mount Hawley Storage, 8101 N. Hale President of Illinois NOW as well as President The denomination of Southern Baptists was of the local chapter of NOW. She was among formed in 1845 by rural whites�ho insisted on Eureka Public Library, 202 S. Main, Eureka many people who recently protested the their right to own slaves. Washington Public Library, 315 W. Pershing, opening of a Hooters restaurant in Bloomington. Washington -Once again to Rev. Jerry Falwell (of Tinky Morton Public Library, 301 Walnut St.,Morton Luellen didn't limit her activism to women's Winky fame) for avowing there is "demonic i sues; she spent many hours lobbying for equal legend" behind the Lilith of Sarah The 9thAnnual GLT Recycled Music Sale is � rights for the glbt community as well. It was McLachlan's Lilith Fair. According to ancient Friday, August 18 through Sunday, August 20 at not uncommon to see her lobbying passionately literature, Lilith was created by God as College Hills Mall in Normal. Mall hours are for the passage of HB 474, the state bill that Adam's first wife but left Eden after refusing to 10am-9pm Friday and Saturday, and 12-5pm would outlaw discrimination against members be submissive to Adam. Eve came later. Sunday. A members-only Preview Sale will be of the glbt community in Illinois. held Thursday, August 17, 6-9pm. -- fromThe Rainbow Connection newsletter Memberships are available at the door. Special thanks to Recycled Music Sale sponsors Luellen brought a passion and energy to College Hills Mall, The Pantagraph, Stone everything she did, and we join many others in Container Corp., Paxton's, Dalkey Archive mourning her passing. Press and samgoody.
AUGUST/SEPfEMBER2000 POST AMERIKAN PAGE3 Reuse, the misunderstood
I've been ruminating how to delineate "reuse" whose eclectic pastiche-esque use of materials technique dating back as"'lnuch as a millennia because it is polysemic, and here is my much is proof of his acumen. He is, in my mind, one of ago. Anyone who has played behind a cord of thought of, and rife answer: "to use stuff the great harbingers of "the new architecture" wood as a child (or as an adult) can attest to again." There seems to be a different neologism employing non-orthogonal geometry to create their sturdy and easily put together structure. for "reuse" every time you pick up a current wild structures that are organicisms. The other With a little training, one can create a home periodical. But it still comes down to reusing group of harbingers that comes to mind when I for $10.00 to $30.00 per square foot. A 20' x 30' stuff. That stuff may be a used automobile tire think of "reuse" are the wonderful folks at "the structure can use 6.5 cords of wood. With proper to build a home, converting a brownscap� into Cob Cottage Company" in Cottage Grove, insulation they can achieve a rating of R-32. an artistscolony, or using two tin cans to make a Oregon. They meld heterogeneous materials The true master of cordwood metatecture is Rob child's telephone. The use of the term into a soft and flowing home within their Toy of the Earthwood Building School in West "recycle" is oft times substituted for "reuse;" expansive use of the traditional "Cob" building Chazy, New York, whose magnificent and certainly the line between the "like" terms technique, also known as "earthen sculptural structures have been featured on the is fuzzy, which adds to the confusion. I will metatecture." Likewise, Becky Bee, of Ground television show People Near Here and in attempt to codify the myriad of ways in which Works in Murphy, Oregon, is also one of the Mother Earth News magazine, among other it is being used in "Metatecture" (alternative great gurus of Cob and reuse metatecture. Both places. Cordwood construction can utilize parts architecture) by innovative Architectonic the Cob and Cottage folks and Ground Works of trees that are unsuitable for lumber and are conceptualists like the brilliant Bart Prince, offer wonderfulbooks on Cob construction. Mr. thrown away or burned. It also uses a vast Prince and these other fountainheads of assortment of materials such as wine bottles and other found objects. There is a great book At the end of 1998 the press was astir with knowledge should be explored by anyone and instructional video on cord woodcreated by word that a hermit had ventured to build his interested in metatecture. Rob Roy available, among other places, 136 square foot home eighteen feet below the through Mother Earth News. surface of Nantucket Island's soil. In fact, his The ultimate use of "reuse" construction is being simple domicile afforded him the luxury to done by "Earthship Global Operations" in In the debut issue of Earth Quarterly it was work sporadically and to own three other Taos, New Mexico. They call their version of reported that a new substance called "fibrous homes in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New reuse metatecture "solar survival cement" is being used effectively by Mike York's Catskill Mountains. The dwelling architecture." Many of you may be familiar McCain and Sean Sands. They claim their complete with Belgian stone floors, television, with the incredible home constructed for the houses cost 60 cents and 75 cents per square foot. a queen size bed, various pieces of furniture and actor and Earth activist Dennis Weaver built They are experimenting with a domed structure an alcove that kept food cool; it was mostly in large part with automobile tires, recycled that they say will bring the cost down to 39 built with materials that were previously used cans, and a sundry of other material in the cents a square foot. for other functions and other structures, et desert of Mew Mexico. The solar survival cetera, or what is called "reuse." When I structures generally use between 500 to 2,500 Yes, I said thirty-nine cents a square foot. Of simply said to a friend "Oh, that's a reuse tires and the square foot cost can range from shelter," he was greatly mystified by the term $30.00 to $150.00. They make use of passive course the shell of structure only comprises 10% "reuse," as many people are. solar design for heat, catch rainwater and to 15% of the overall cost of building. But snowmelt for a water source and have designed 'innovations like these are blowing a remarkable "graywater" treatment planter conventional building costs out of the water. system. The tires are safely used to form an Reuse structures have been rebuffed throughout almost adobe looking structure when covered history. The mass media likes to show with plaster. Yet, some of them look like Mad Ozarkesque tar paper shacks, or the "jhuggies" Max gone to Mars. (the shelters of India built with scrap materials). I hate to be a mythoclast but many The other major "reuse" construction method "reuse" construction shelters have proved to be currently being ballyhooed has its roots in quite efficacious, and in many cases, ancient Europe and the western Nebraska amaranthine. The Architectonic saying, "Form · plains, but it is just now being fully worked follows function" is generally the rule of thumb with. It's strawbale metatecture. This . in most survival and/ or low cost "reuse" construction method is undoubtedly the best structures, and they tend to be rather pragmatic known reuse metatecture in the alternative looking. But modern "reuse" metatecture is far thinking world. Strawbale construction is from the commonly known penurious shacks of exactly what it sounds like: using strawbales old. like brobdingnagian bricks, pinning them together with rebar, or better yet, with "Reuse" structures can be commodious because of
renewable bamboo spikes. The end result is their low cost, or tiny like Thomas Johnson's · also an adobe looking structure, but it can take "Hermit House" on Nantucket. There certainly on many forms. seems to be an atavistic calling to return to a simpler construction method. Like when Henry These stable and sustainable structures have David Thoreau had his tiny home on Walden been built for as little as $5.00 per square foot. Pond. Whei;twe surrender our primal need to Although the national average is $60.00 per build our own nest, we give up our self square foot. Strawbale tested walls have empowerment. Generation after generation we withstood 1850 degrees F heat for two hours, get farther and farther away from being able to are pest androdent resistant, can be built by build shelters on our own. relatively unskilled labor, and perhaps best of When we were kids a washing machine box .•.s 1 all is that straw is a renewable resource which Monday Jagermeister oft times is discarded in the millions of tons. could become a castle; and personally, "The The United States alone grows and disposes of, Little Rascals" had nothing on my childhood Tuesday... s 125 Domestic Beer or burns, enough straw to build five million forts. 2,000 square foot structures each year. Wednesday• ..52 Long Island Ice Tea The third major "reuse" metatecture is Hours:Monda y· Thursday 4 pm • I am cordwoodconstruction, a. k. a. cordwood Friday 4 pm - 2 am • Saturday 8 pm • 2 am masonry, log-end, stackwood, or stackwall Sunday 6 pm - I am construction. Again the term tells what it is. It is structures composed of stacked cordwood, a 316 N. Main �treet •Bloomington• 309.829.2278
PAGE4 POST AMERIKAN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2000 .� 7' element
"Reuse" has become a crucial component to my prohibited to build strawbale structures, but community designs. I combine "reuse" with now there are several states that grant rammed Earth, air I armature construction, tire building permits for strawbale construction. construction, and Earthen metatecture, along Many states grant permits for experimental with a wide usage of inter-connecting solarium architecture whilst some people build hybrid walkways, amongst a myriad of building conventional/ metatecture structures to stay methods traditional and modern. Conventional within zoning regulations. You'll have to architecture would have never allowed my investigate your local rules, and the dreaded designs (even on paper) to be on a scale that building codes. they are, because the expense would have been unthinkable for the artists, crafts persons, The other catch is that "reuse" and metatecture musicians, writers, performance artists and in general tends to be quite labor intensive, other "like minded" kindred that the further more, finding tools and equipment tends community is being designed for. A community to be a challenge. It is not likely you'll find a that I call "New Gaia" ( a forest colony) strawbale saw at W almart, but with a little SAVEATREE. "reuse" metatecture puts this vision within a correspondence and some networking you'll find pragmatic grasp. Likewise "reuse" metatecture what you need to sculpt your own castle. is a viable answer to alternative intentional How did we lose that ease to create shelter? communities, putting cost at a level that even --Nikolai Alexanderovich Zarick As children we built with wooden blocks, legos, poorly funded groups can obtain. In fact, many architectonic conceptualist Lincoln logs, erector sets, and made sand intentional communities have been providing castles, and we could tum a blanket into a Nile grounds and modernday lyceums for tent. We have it in us, we just need to reach metatecture; providing hands-on straw bale, Recommended reading back into our beings to get that naturally rammed earth, bamboo, cob, and "reuse'' courses occurring Architectonic thought process back. regularly at very reasonable tuition rates. Underground House Book , by Mike As a culture we have become so detached from "Reuse" can also be a source for bricolage Oehler building techniques that many of us can only furniture, where antlers, tree roots, stumps, Mole Publishing Company envisage an endless cycle of paying rent or being wagon wheels, and other found objects can ISBN 0-442-27311-8 strapped to an eternal mortgage payment. become chandeliers, chairs, pots and pan racks, RT 4 Box 618, Dept 8 That seems to work out fine for the majority of clothing racks, bed headboards, or whatever Bonners Ferry, Idaho people , until they fall out of the economic loop you can imagine. 83805 and end up sleeping on somebody elses couch, in a homeless shelter, or in their car. This harsh Imagination is perhaps the most important The Architecture of Bart Prince: A reality for many is merely a paycheck away. factor of "reuse" which is why studying Pragmatics of Place by Chrislopher Cuetis "Reuse" metatecture is a golden path off the architects like Bart Prince is so essential. Mean merry-go-roundof modern/conventional There is no substituting the need for Norton Publishing architecture and housing. architectural academics for the vast majority Edward R. Hamilton Booksellers of construction and in no way am I puttiqgdown Falls Village, CT. Don't get me wrong, I greatly admire even the conventional architecture; it's just that 06031-5000 most conventional of architects and construction metatecture has a place in the social mix of firms, and I cherish my membership in the structural design. Metatecture has much to Skills for Simple Living by Betty Boston Society of Architects. Yet we must take learn from conventional architectural design, Tillotson back our self empowerment and learn at least likewise alternative architecture has much to ISBN 0-88179-035-4 the basics of nest building; not only for teach the architects of the world. Hartley and Marks Inc. ourselves, but for the Earth that is being more 79 Ty.eeDr. and more depleted by non sustainable We are living in a time when.people can study Port Roberts, WA architecture and wasteful demolition methods an assortment of metatecture methods for very 98281 of preexisting structuresmany of which could be little money and without traveling very far. And the internet is chocked full of information used or reused to build thus creating Ga.rba.ge & opportunitiesfor many persons that can profit on alternative architecture and building lls from a new "reuse" industry by practicing the materials. Courses canbe taken for a modest La.ndff high art of scrounging. fee that empower even the most unhandy amongst us. Albert Einstein said "Imagination Americans produce nearly three times more garbage The U. S. rail system installs 14 million is more important than knowledge" which is creosote treated wood railroad ties each year. why artists, musicians, poets and those that annually than many other So where do the removed ties go? If someone is use the right side of their brain more than the countries, and we throw most ·left side can have as much say in "reuse" telephonically gifted, they could become a of it away. For some time now, metatecture as full time architects. Let your . professional scrounger and find out. This other countries have had strict mind run free and design the space you have concept could be applied to calling laws requiring the recyding of restaurateurs to obtain wine bottles, junk yards only dreamed of before, but that conventional solid waste. Most citizens of for tires, construction firms to obtain salvaged construction put aside due to the high cost. items and so on and so on. You can create a "Reuse" metatecture can enflesh your dreams. the United St(ltes have grown With prices that start at 39 cents a square foot, whole list of sources: arborists, road crews, up with the idea that when and current information speaks of $30.00 homes, paper mills, cabinet makers, .... they place garbage in cans for the only limit to creating you home is your will "Deconstruction" (carefully demolished disposal, it magically and desire. structures so that the majority of the materials disappears and they no longer can be salvaged) is creating a whole new type 'So what's the catch?' you are probably need to worry about it. But of salvage yards and "reuse" networks that wondering. Yep, there are catches. The biggest provide sinks, toilets, H. V. A. C. ducts, bricks, times have changed and the is zoning laws. But just a few years ago it was doors, flooring, plumbing, fixturesand beautiful garbage we throw away is architectural goodies. causing landfill capacity to diminish.
AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER2000 POST AMERIKAN PAGES Misc. Resources about "reuse" structures
The Cob Cottage Company Earthship Global Operations Bart Prince PO Box 123 PO Box2009 3501 Monte Vista N .E. Cottage Grove, OR El Prado, NM Albuquerque, NM 97424 87529 87106 The Last Straw Mother Earth News Earth Quarterly HC 66, Box119 49th East 21st ST 11th Fl Box 23-F Hillsboro, NM New York, NY Radium Springs, NM 88042 10010 88054
Building With Nature Groundworks/ Becky Bee The Permaculture Activist PO Box4417 PO Box381 PO Box1209 Murphy, OR Santa Rosa, CA Black Mountain, NC 97533 95402-4417 28711
The Cabin a Center for Peace, Justice andNon-Violent Social Change
Professor Noam Chomsky. 1'1AY 21, 2000
"Humanitarian Intervention and Enlightened States" AVAILABLE ON AUDIOTAPE AND VHS VIDEO
The Cabin WaS the inspiration and home of David Anderson, who died of leukemia i11 the summer of 1998. David's cabin, like so many of his creations, en1bodies ideals of simplicity and beauty around which he.shaped his life. The Cabin'splace has changed. but its purpose is not new. David was intensely concerned with advancing the cause 9f peace and non"violent social change during his own llfe. One of his defining traits was his devotion to those around him, not just to his friends but to the rights of suffering people all over the world.
To reach ''The Cabin" please write: The Cabin. High Mowing School. POB 850, Wilton, NH 03086
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PAGE6 POST AMERIKAN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER2000 '
. ' . . . -. - . . - . . � ..: . :.. : - : - :. ·-. . -. . . .
Notes from· the land of anti-fat
Make no mistake. Unlike the right-wing pundits (who've been yowling about the fat tax ever since it first was proposed) I'm not automatically against a penny tax on crap. What I'm against is scare mongering and half-assed research -- the kind of pseudo public health statements that encourage parents to put their still developing kids on diets, the kind of simplistic sound bites that lay the blame for a poorly substantiated "health crisis" on soda pop and Fritos. I'm against policy discussions that do little to enhance public health, but exist mainly to support an already over-wealthy diet industry and a money-for-hire research community.
Junk science leads to junk policy. Has anyone thought of taxing hidden agendas?
, fat-free milk increased from 18 percent to 41 --Bill Sherman Tax the Fat? percent."
It's a subject that seems to be coming up with Let's ignore the fact that seven weeks is a piss increasing frequency in public discussion: the poor timeframe for any sort of health study. creation of a tax on snacks and soft drinks as an Let's go to the nitty-gritty presumption that fat- incentive to "keep Americans slim and trim." ' free milk is automatically healthier for all Most recently, researchers from the Center for concerned. (New moms: -stop that breast Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and Yale feeding immediately!) To say this involves University have come out promoting the conceptual leaps and faulty science is to be kind. concept with typical hyperbolic scare language. If this is the sort of program being held as an example of strong public health procedure, then "With obesity rates soaring and the costs of diet · ·we're all in a lot of trouble. related diseases in the stratosphere [emphasis mine1 it is essential that government fund major But this is what frequently passes for policy campaigns to promote healthful diets and discussion when you talk about the War on Fat: physical activity," Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, said in a statement. "One way blurred distinctions and broad generalizations about Oat 01' Demon Obesity. The fear of fat is to obtain funding is to apply small taxes to foods so trong that it allows such slippery dialog - that undermine health." � all m the holy name of Public Health.
The key word here is "funding," of course. Both Jacobsen and Kelly Browned, a Yale Psychology professor who worked on the study with Jacobsen, have a vested interest in the increased allocation of such moneys. At stake is a proposed increase in millions of dollars for the public coffers.
Consider these figures, proffered by Jacobsen and Browned: a national one-cent tax on 12- ounce soft drinks has the potential to generate about $1.5 billion every year; a one-cent tax per pound on chips, candy and other snack foods could raise $124 million; a tax on fats and oils (somewhat - um - slipperier to consider but these are their figures) could bring in $190 million. No small amount of money, and in the abstract it doesn't sound half bad: think of all the great health programs that could be funded with that amount of cabbage. .
Well, let's consider one such program, cited by the American Journal of Public Health writers as a good example of a public anti-fat campaign: a seven-week trial campaign in Clarks burg, West Virginia. Said campaign reportedly was designed to encourage consumers to switch from higher fat to lower fat milk to reduce intakes of saturated fat. "After the 7-week campaign, the market share of one percent or
PAGE7 AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER2000 POST AMERIKAN Mental illness awareness
Congress holds hearing on mental treatment, as well as the wrong treatment, can together in partnership. It is practical, easy to health equitable treatment act put a child's future at risk." read and hopeful."
The 1996Insurance Parity Act expires Sept. 30, A word of caution... 2001 unless reauthorized by Congress, so Sen. New Book Release James Jeffers, (R, VT) convened a hearing on Johns Hopkins Medical Letter of April 2000 May 18 on Senate bill 796, the Mental Health I am not sick, I don't need help, helping the gave a cautionary note on the use of St. Johns Equitable Treatment Act. Sen. Domenici (R) seriously mentally ill accept treatment, a Wort. The over-the-counter supplement is a and Sen. W ellstone (D) are primary sponsors. practical guide for families and therapists, by purported natural remedy for depression, but it Xavier Amador, Ph.D with Anna-Lisa should not be used while also taking a S. 796 would require full insurance parity for Johanson prescription SSRI medication, such as Paxill, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive Prozac and Zoloft. compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post This new book is a must read for families and traumatic stress disorder, autism and other care givers trying to cope with a loved one with . Several cases of serotonin syndrome have been severe and disabling illnesses such as anorexia mental illness who refuses treatment because reported in people who took St. Johns Wort nervosa and attention-deficit/hyperactivity he/she does not believe that he/she is ill. You concurrently with an SSRI (selective serotonin disorder. Further, no health plan may use day will learn that 50% of all people with reuptake inhibitor). Serotonin syndrome is a and visit limits for mental illness which are schizophrenia and manic-depression do not condition marked by headaches, tremors, and in different than physical illnesses. understand that they are ill and refuse severe cases coma. treatment. Whether you are a family member "Sen. Domenici welcomed the conclusions of a or a therapist, in this book you will find hope As a safety measure, always check with your new General Accounting Office (GAO) study in what the new research is revealing about the doctor for a possible interaction between any released at the hearing confirming that problem of poor insight into illness. Prepare to over-the-counter supplement or medication and employer compliance with the 1996 law is not be surprised and to have new hope. There is your prescription medication. driving up insurance costs." much you can do to conquer denial. Giant garage sale planned for Here arethe GAO's findings: Xavier Amado has a brother with September -Costs of the Parity Act of 1996were schizophrenia. He is director of Psychology at "negligible for most health plans" with only the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a Jett Jacobs is organizing a secondbig NAMI 3% of employers reporting an increase in costs Professor of Psychology at Columbia University garage sale. It is planned for September so start College of Physicians & Surgeons. He is a collecting items now. -14% of employers are complying with the 1996 world-renowned expert on the problem of poor Act. not including small employers of 50 or insight into illness in individuals with The sale last year was very successful. fewer that were exempt for the 1996 law. schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Anna-Lisa Johanson is the daughter of Margaret Ray, the Family/Genetic study and obsessive -87% of employers complying with the 1996 act woman people know as "David Letterman's compulsive Disorder ( OCD) restrict mental health benefits more than stalker." Her mother diagnosed with medical or surgical benefits. schizophrenia and schizoaff ective disorder, The staff of the Laboratory of Clinical Science took her own life in 1998. -Only 5 employers in the nation dropped invites individuals who have experienced OCD and their close relatives, to join in a mental health coverage as a result of the 1996 Among the critical acclaim the book has genetic study. The Interview can be done by Act. already received: phone and a small blood sample is needed. Participants receive $25 for time, $25 for giving -The Administration relies on complaints for Dr. E. Fuller Torrey - "This is the first book to blood, and expenses for the procedure and monitoring compliance. Though 24 states may address the elephantine question running shipping will be paid. Confidentiality will be not be fully implementing the 1996 Act, 3 states roughshod over families of individual with maintained. To participate, call John Gause at are not complying at all. schizophrenia and bipolar disorder." 301-496-3421 collect. dedicated to improving identification, assessment and treatment practices for children The approach of S 796 is similar to that A look back. .. recently taken by 31 states, but not Illinois. with mental disorders.
August 1986: Walter Jacobson of WBBM-TV Federal legislation is needed. Too many The Center's principal functions will be to help criticized the Governor for cutting the State disparities or gaps exist and state laws do not identify new research findings ready for Fred Frese, Ph.D. - "The great value of I'm not cover the health plans of self-insured implementation in practice; to disseminate sick is that it incorporates both the consumer's companies. The total cost of parity-based on information and engage in public outreach; and perspective and that of the clinician. It finds actual experience represents less than a one to provide technical assistance. common ground, pointing out where the percent increase per year in the cost of health consumer and his/her clinician can work insurance coverage. It will concentrate on five areas of pediatric mental disorders: attention-deficit I hyperactivity health budget by $17 million _ and at the disorder (ADHD); major depressive disorder; same bme offering NAMI is asking members to call or write our the White Sox $17 million anxiety disorders; obsessive-compulsive to help build Senators to support the Domenici-Wellstone a new stadium. Times don't bill, s 796. disorders (OCD) and youth suicide. change much.
The Center was established by the Dept. of --NAMI of Livingston/McLean Counties National center created for children's Psychiatry at Columbia University and the newsletter mental health New York State Psychiatric Institute.
"National concern clearly exists about children The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and mental illnesses. Parents are demanding joined with the newly established Center for better answers to help them make the right the Advancement of Children's Mental Health choices, "Flynn said. "Some concern is focused to announce the creation of a national center on whether too many children are being put too quickly on medication. But in many cases, medication is the right choice. Lack of
AUGUST /SEPTEMBER 2000 PAGES POST AMERIKAN The Poetr
Ode to Barbie
duck! she said. officer, that Barbie doll threw a bathtub at me YO'U·R POEM I was minding my own business, multi-tasking, as usual: (1) protesting the acrid stench in the air (2) playing poems on that girl's long brown hair HiR:E. (3) reminding the Jesus Freaks that even though I don't need His gift, I care (4) munching on potato chips, so debonair The Post Amerikan is seeking poetry the officer wrestles with a fire ant for the potato chip, submissions for the Poetry Page. ".this is state evidence." he announces, his voice like a bullhorn pulling a kumquat from his blue buttoned pocket If interested, please mail your poem to: he sends the fire ant on her way with a heavy load," no ant to see here" Post Amerikan. P.O. Box 3452, the officer thinks to himself sill-i-lee Bloomington, IL 61702 or e-mail to: bending over, plucking a buttercup from the yard next to the bathtub [email protected] the water is dripping steadily into the tub 3 songbirds are shaking their tail feathers in the water We have the right to reject any poem. & a sprite scrubs his back with a cat tail
the officer closes up his notebook wiggling his ears looking at the bathtub, looking at my head, only a dent
--Stephen Zimmerly
PAGE9 AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER2000 POST AMERIKAN enomenon
unrivaled array of end products that are I am an automobile owner and driver. Almost greenhouse emissions that reduce quality of life indispensable to our highly industrialized everyday, for the last ten years, I would unlock and ecosystems worldwide. Imagine our little society:asphalt for road making, cleaning agents, my car door,open it, and sit down behind the blue orb dotted with billions of humans amid explosives, fertilizers, fibers, jellies, jet fuel, wheel. A drive to work, a ride to a friends gray clouds of toxins. paraffin, medicines, naphtha, paints,plastics, residence, or a trip to another city all require synthetic rubber and waxes." gasoline. To most of us, this is a well-known and Some might suggest that global warming is a of en overlooked issue. Until recently. The gas verydifficult issue. Hard to prove and � So many items that we, as a society, take for pnces have gone up. They are the subjects of considered highly speculative, this has been a granted everyday and yet, we insist on driving casual conversation and gain attention on the subject of some doubt. After all, the weather our resources into extinction. evening news. As automobile drivers that seem doesn't really seem to be noticeably different, and to be concernedabout the gouge on our wallets, it isn't so unbearable that humans can't exist. I With so many uses for a barrel of oil, it seems that we should recognize this as an alarm. just can't help noticing black exhaust fumes we c ul do more good by producing than by coming fromlarge trucks and cars that aren't well � � burrung it. Some estimate that our oil resources Gas prices going up is not a new trend. I seem to kept. Do you ever wait at a traffic light behind a may only have three to five decades left at the remember that when I was a small child, in the vehicle like this? If you 're at all like me, you rate that humans are consuming it now. A barrel seventies, there was an oil embargo. There were might get a headache and have a scowl on your of oil usually contains about 100 gallons. That stories of outrageous gasoline prices and long face. According to Christopher Flavin in his hundred-gallon barrelcould produce an Imes. at the gas station. I also remember hearing article "Energy for a New Century": immense amount of possible items. Arizona State my father praising the rise in cost and begging "As the new centurybegins, the world's 6 billion University professor Roy Mcallister writes that a for it to go higher. My father seemed to so people already live with the dark legacy of the barrel of oil "can be used to producepolymers concerned about how he spends his money that I heavily polluting energy system that powered the that are essential to constituents of goods ftsuch was amazed to hear such things fromhim. When last century. It is a legacy that includes as televi ions, computers, clothing, carpeting, I asked why he wanted the prices to go higher he impoverished lakes and estuaries, degraded � and vehicles - that sell in today's marketplace for gave me the most simple, yet surprising answer: forests, and millions of damaged human lungs." over $3,500. " However, that same hundred "Alternativefuels, my son, alternative fuels." I gallon barrel, at today's cost per gallon, could be have to agree. So, hooray for rising gas prices. So how do we cope with the alleged atrocities old to fuel automobiles for the price of $159. This that we unleash upon ourselves? It seems to me � i� a verygenerous estimateconsidering thatthe Ourplanet is getting smaller every year, day, and that humans naturally seek clean substances. We oil must be refinedinto consumable gasoline. minute. The population is going to be love drinking spring water and we love breathing Perhaps, if we are trulyfortunate, we may get , tremendously large verysoon. With that in mind, countryair. Yet, the same humans find it difficult three quarters of that barrel for our cars. we are currently depleting our fossil fuel to consider alternativeor renewable fuel options. resourcesat an alarming rate and will decimate In an articlewritten by Rose Marie Berger, she The expense of oil need not keep the citizens of them at the current rate of ravage soon. A huge writes, ''Even Shell Oil admits that renewable our littleblue planet from their transportation. population that, if we remain dependent on fossil energy could take more than 50 percent of the There are so many other options and most of fuel use, will b cho�g on fume and energy market by 2050." Seems to me that if a � � them are much cleaner. Such things as electrical . major competitor in the fossil fuel industry is batt ries, methanol, and hydrogen can fuel willing to admit that their product is on the way � vehicles. We can use different sources of energy out, then we can consider that the need for clean an� we don't have to suffer the blight of oil's high air fuels is becoming more and more urgent. pnces to our wallets and our environment. Since the fuel embargo of the 1970s, so many things have changed dramatically. The computer Electric cars are already on the road and many of industry shot out like the space shuttle program; us have seen commercials on television about space stations are being built, and the compact them. The Environmental Protection Agency, in a disc is rocking the house, car, and office. But, due fact sheet they issued, states that "electrics to the 70s, there has been a greater concernover transportation. We were given the proverbial slap flourished before the rise of the gasoline in the face. Wake up and smell the exhaust. automobile" and "some 50,000 electric vehicles were in use in the United States by 1912. " The So, as we watch gas prices soar again, we are still EPA refers to the electric car as "zero-emission consuming. John Berger writes in the Earth Is land vehicles". However, as clean as the electric car Journal: _"Since 1970, we've spent more than a may be, the electric power plants that generate trillion dollars just buying foreign oil. More than the electricity "tp charge vehicle batteries 50 percent of the oil we use is imported. The produces air pollution and solid waste." A growing costs of these imports deprives us of concern for the car-driving citizenmight be how money we could otherwise use to rebuild an electricauto would drive.The EPA states that industries and transportation systems, and to "driving an electriccar will feel verysimilar to fund our medical care and educational systems." driving a gasoline car" and electric cars"have the potential to be quieter." That means the money we so desperately need for our own well being is sent to the Middle East Another good option,methanol, has already been to add to their coffers. Some of this money, that in use for several years. Methanol has several could be used to educate our children, is spent on advantages. For one, it is low in "reactive weapons that are a potentialthreat to the U.S. hydrocarbons which forms smog." It is the only fuel used in Indianapolis-type racecars. Methanol 1 hey have firepower and are able to send their can be made from a variety of readily available children to our universities, and we have air sources such as: natural gas, coal, and pollution and little else to show for what they biomass(e.g. wood) . So, not only is a good sold us. Berger also writes that "each year the U.S. option to gasoline, it is much less flammable and spends $25 billion for the military defense of our can be manufactured and sold at prices that are oil interests in the Middle East." comparable to gas. Dilip Hire, author of "Dictionaryof the MiddleEast", writes: "Crude oil does more than drive our cars and heat our homes. It provides an
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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2000 PAGE 10 POST AMERIKAN My favorite solution to the fuel dilemma is There are, however, downsides to all solutions to I have never been much of an activist or a "tree hydrogen. Roy Mcallister describes hydrogen as the gasoline problem. Electric cars rely on hugger". But, I do know that I don't like to see "a nontoxic, clean burning fuel that can be batteries that must be recharged at home and that garbage on the streets of my town. I know that I producedfrom readily available hydrogen electricity comes from questionable resources like don't enjoy inhaling exhaust. So I would say that containing compounds such as water". Water! coal, natural gas, or nuclear power. All of which my interest in alternative fuels is somewhat of a Our planet is three-quarters water. Not only is have harmful ecological side effects. Methanol is personal interest. I want to breathe clean air. I hydrogen a good idea, when burned it "produces highly toxic and would cause harm to the body if want to drink clean water. Perhaps this might heat and clean water." Mcallister goes on to write ingested orally. A small amount, about two seem greedy, but I don't believe that I am the. that hydrogen, when used in an automobile teaspoons, could cause a person- to go blind. only person with this opinion. In an article titled produces "minus-emissions - that is, the exhaust Hydrogen has a nasty history of being harnessed "A Future Without Fossil Fuel", John Berger pipe releases cleaner air than that which enters to do mass destruction in the form of the writes "polls conducted in 1994 and 1995 by the engine." I would say that cleaner air via auto hydrogen bomb. So it has the false reputation of exhaust is a rather amazing idea. being explosive and volatile. It does draw from Republican pollster Vince Breglio show that our seemingly dwindling water resources, but it almost two-thirds of Americans believe that All of these fuel alternatives are very good also produces water. The current power renewables should be the Department of Energy's concepts. Recently, on some nightly news resources pollute a lot of our waterways and the highest or second-highest funding priority." program, I heard that a van fueled by hydrogen hydrogen engine emits clean air. Downsides is going to be used as a pace vehicle during the indeed! So there I was, back in discussion with my Dad, 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. What a after all these years watching gasoline being wonderful idea! A vehicle that won't emit smog Knowing that a way to fuel our cars without consumed by the masses. I thought I would tell on the runners or bicyclists behind it and proof causing more damage to our environment and him about all the wonderful things I had learned positive to the world that a capable solution to ourselves makes it ridiculous to think that we about alternative fuels. But, this is a man that I our gas woes is definitely possible. should keep burningfossil fuels. We have created couldn't even try to shock when I showed him a huge deficit on our planet's ecosystems. The my nipple ring. He said to me, "that's all fine and Mcallister states that "kits for high-efficiency rising price of gasoline at the filling stations wonderful, but nobody will ch A solution that could be considered by the big motor companies is to take a cue from companies like Microsoft, IBM, or Sony. They should make the alternative fueled auto look like an item that is needed. The video cassette recorder, the home computer, the laptop computer, and the microwave all started out with expensive and humble beginnings and, now all these items are ,.ernaining ti-esh air commonplace in our homes and work places. The Toconge� �e shiny, new, hot product that is coming is the all during thecu rrentpo llution clean, all comfortable hydrogen-fueled four-door alert,the EPA hasann ounced sedan. And you want it!!! --Jeff Schultz a plan fo r breathingon alternatedaY.s ••• detailsat11 . } AUGUST I SEPTEMBER 2000 POST AMERIKAN PAGE 11 Connect the dots In one comer of Mother Wind's Native dozen government agenciesand hundreds of There are many books, magazines articles, American & Spiritual Emporium (1410 1/2 S. scientists, in and out of government. The newspaper articles, etc. reporting on all of the Main, Normal, IL) sets a three ring binder, report's overview summary stated "Based on different ecology issues going on today. It is growing as its creator, Greg Brown, adds to it. the best available information, most Americans time for us as a people - as a nation of people The notebook contains newspaperand magazine. will experience significant impacts from setting aside all bigotry -- to stand together, articles, mostly from The Pantagraph, and Earth's warming. " Interestingly enough, the educate ourselves and our families, and speak mostly on a biweekly basis, regarding study was criticized by unnamed persons out. We need to connect the dots -- tie the issues extremely serious ecological issues. These charging that it "paints too dismal a picture together -- pollution is pollution whether it's issues cover the three items necessary for ALL and plays down potential benefits of warming." in the air, water, or the land. Let the debate , LIFE -- air, water, and land. Land because food Books are being written bringing serious issues begin. Let our voices join together and be heard. · is grown either on or in the land with all its to light. A Plague of Frogs by William Souder We can make a difference by getting the ball pollutants. These issues are written about that talks about all the deformed frogs being found one time - almost no one responds to them. A rolling. Change, unfortunately, will not in Minnesotaand parts of Canada. Ross few Letters to the Editor have followed either happen overnight - but the Beginning of the Gelbspan talks about the effects of glob� an article or another Letter to the Editor. Change can! It is warming and the scientists hired by public almost as if no one sees these articles. The . relations firm (Drs. Balling, Michaels, and reporters have done their jobs -- they' e Yes, this means changing our lifestyle, and � Singer) to "reposition global warming as theory written the stories. The paper I magazines . therefore, some inconvenience. Yes, most of us rather than fact" in his book, The Heat is On. have printed the stories and put them into have worked hard for what we have, but in There is further documentation indicating the circulation. Why haven't we done our job???? doing so, have caused harm to the Earth. "campaign was designed to target 'older, less Ashamedly, I admit that for the first forty four educated men ...[and] young, low-income Some of these articles are written by years of my life I walked "stupid" upon the women' in districts which receive their ecologically enlightened people warning of the face of Mother Earth, contributing in my own electricity from coal." dangers of continued damage to the Earth; some way to Her destruction. For the last nine years, are presented by public relations fir s hi ed by I have done my best to walk upon the Earth as � � In the book In the Absence of the Sacred -- The corporate America to play down specific. issues. SACRED GROUND not as real estate. Failure of Technology & the Survival of the In fact, one document can be quoted as stating Indian Nations by Jerry Mander we are that global warming is an "unexpected and This is our world, our home, our children's' reminded that we need "reverence for the wonderful gift from the industrial revolution." home, our grandchildren's' home. Once earth." In "lacking a sense of the sacred, we At least three specific scientists names keep humanity has destroyed this planet, where were doomed to a bad result. Today the cropping up in support of such believable will we live? Where will our [human] species of man is facing a question of statements, Drs. Robert Balling, Pat Michaels, children/ grandchildren play? What will they [its] very survival .... The way of life known a and S. Fred Singer. be drinking? What will they be breathing into Western Civilization is on a death path on their little lungs? How will we answer them which their own culture has no viable answers. A recent article in The Pantagraph (6/9/00) when they ask, "WHY?" When faced with the reality of their own ''Temperature increase to change American destructiveness, they can only go forwai:d into In 1851 Chief Seattle said ''To harin the Earth life" reported on a four year study done by � areas of more efficient destruction. The air is is to heap contempt upon its Creator." How foul, the waters poisoned, the trees dying, the will you answer your Creator whenhe/ she animals are disappearing. We think even the asks, "WHY?" systems of weather are changing Our ancien : � teaching warned us that if man interfered with Connect the Dots -- All pollution issues are just the natural laws, these things would come to that, pollution issues. If you connect the be. When the last of the Natural Way of Life deformed frogs with the global warming with is gone, all hope for human survival will be the lead poisoning with the fact that 1/3 of our gone with it. And our Way of Life is fast coast lines are damaged from run-offfrom farm disappearing, a victim of the destructive land [Illinois being the worst off ender] with . 4 ,,, process.We know there are many people in the the smog and air pollution in the larger cities, Moth world who can quickly grasp the intent of our er W1n111 s with �tc., etc., etc., you will see just how bad a message. But our experience has taught us that shape this planet is in. and remember, Native American there are few who are willing to seek out a method for moving toward any real change." WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING ana FOR! !! Spiritual Emporium --Walks The West Wind Native American & Earth Based Spiritual Items 14101 12 S. Main Normal, IL 61761 309.45 1.3307 wtww [email protected] M-F 10 to 7 Sat. 10 to 6 - A pince to reconnect your heart to the earth - ·· · ---- ...---...::... / -� Vldillo, 5-...re OCako) epf PAGE 12 POST AMERIKAN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2000 ·�· ·Freedom of (hate) speech Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words -51 % said art should not be placed in public There are two major problems: definition and will never hurt me. I always knew that places if it may offend some members of enforcement. Who gets to decide what is particular childhood mantra was a bit bogus, the community; offensive? How many people need to be especially when those words were directed at offended before an issue is banned? What, me. I cringed and cried, and then finally --84% believe people should not be allowed to exactly, constitutes a fringe group? We will not laughed with the other children as they burn the American flag in an act of merely be talking about Nazis marching in taunted me with such verbal jewels as "dumb political protest; and Skokie or Pat Robertson railing against Polack," "four-eyes," and the ever popular homosexuals. Many people in this country are "fatty, fatty, two by four, can't get through the -53% say that public speech that offends uncomfortable around the developmentally bathroom door."(Variations include bedroom members of a religious group should not disabled. How many Americans would it take door and kitchen door, but my school believed be allowed, even though 20% believe to complain before Special Olympics were bathroom was far funnier.) Add to that the that freedom to worship was never canceled in a community? Would an irate group ever-present, whether implied or explicit, "if meant to apply to religious groups that of Muslims or Jews be allowed to halt you're so smart, how come you're a girl?" and the majority of people consider extreme production of the American Passion Play if the you have pretty well summed up the first 18 or or fringe. city of Bloomington purchases the Consistory? so years of my life. Could the lesbian community get an injunction The real probiem here is that almost anything against public singing or playing of "Stand by As an adult, we can add to those all the slurs can offend almost anybody at any given time, Your Man"? (I certainly find it offensive.) and abuses that come from being a lesbian and, which is why "offensive" speech has always most recently, physically disabled. A wealth been constitutionally protected. But when hate of opportunity for anyone who wanted to use speech is confused with offensive speech, words to hurt me. One would think, then, that I which it will be, because there is no substantive 11Restriction of free thoughtand free speech would whole heatedly embrace the so-called difference between the two, then all speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It "hate speech" legislation being debated in which makes anyone uncomfortable can be the one act that could most Washington and in state capitols all over this defined as hate mongering and legally banned. is un-American defeat country. easily us.'' It certainly troubles me when coaches of male Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas, address, I don't. sports teams and armed forces drill instructors Author's Guild, December 3, 1952, on receiving the ref er to their players and recruits as "ladies" in Lauterbach Awa rd . More important than my personal feelings an attempt (usually successful) to humiliate about my individual situation is the welfare them by the tactic acknowledgment that and well-being of a little piece of paper housed females are intrinsically inferior. (I must admit Are we going to jail Patrick Buchanan or Louis at the National Archives--a piece of paper we that I myself have come dangerously close to Farrakan for hate speech? Would we stop the call the Constitution. It is more important than telling one of the 9-year old boys in my charge Pantagraph from printing editorials critical of I am; it is more important than you are. And it that he throws like a girl). This kind of speech the Clinton administration? Will we bring is clearly more important than any spoken or is deeply embedded in American culture and charges against the City of Bloomington for written words hurled in hatred or uttered in probably contributes to the belief that women offending the town's vegetarians by serving hot ignorance. I did not used to be as adamant ab out and girls are inferior life forms for whom name- dogs in Miller Park during National Night l this issue. could hear the proponents of hate . calling, stalking, rape, battery, and murder and Out? speech legislation when they talked of their just desserts. It is offensive to one-half of creating an atmosphere of hate and an. the population; it contributes to a rape culture Of course not, you say, that's absurd. And you environment of violence. I never bought it, but I and violence against women; it is, by would be right. Because the offensive speech could hear it. Then I read an editorial in the definition, hate speech. But should it be would be limited in scope to slurs against on July of this year. It scared me Pantagraph 4 constitutionally banned? There is a great Baptists, not the Ba H' ais. The extreme right more than I can begin to express. And it made difference in explaining to the coach what his and the extreme left would be denied any me unable to listen to the arguments I had paid use of language says and in jailing him for possibility of freedom of expression. It is far lip service to in the past. saying it. better to tell the Matt Hales of this world that Rather than bog down the Constitution with their pamphlets are offensive; their web sites burdensome amendments which reflect the unacceptable, and their speech not to be cause of the day, why not tackle the problem of tolerated than to tell them they cannot speak " ...the ultimate welfare of the single at all. Even small minds and closed minds need hate speech in the arena where it belongs - human soul (i!?)the ultimate test of the everyday life. If everyone believes that the freedom of expression, or that freedom will be taken from all of us. vitalityof the First Amendment." offensive speech should be banned would take a little initiative and speak out for themselves, United States Supreme Court Justice William 0. Dou we may not need anything further. But it is There are no easy answers to ignorance and no glas, Gillette v. United States, 40 1 U.S. 437 (1971 ). much easier to support an amendment than is to quick fix for hatred. We need to tackle these support people who are different from you. The problems one person, one slur, one act of bigotry at a time. It will be uncomfortable, and esoteric has always been easier to follow than According to a survey done this spring by the disquieting, and at times even dangerous. It the reality. If you tell a co-worker that his use University of Connecticut, in case will make you unpopular, and frustrated, and of the term "fag" is offensive to you and to at times isolated from both family and friends. you missed it, found that: others in the workplace, he might think you're comments and You will be ridiculed and harassed. The anger, --67% of those surveyed believe that public a queer. If you object to sexist humorless man fear, and hate you are trying to counter will at remarks offensive to racial groups sexual stereotyping, you're a edge as valid the times be directed at you. It is the road less should not be allowed, and 36% support hater. If you openly acknowl traveled for a reason, you know. a law to ban such speech; Christian Scientists' opposition to modern medicine, people will say you're a godless I would much rather defend my Constitution --40% Commie. Putting one's beliefs in justice and believe that musicians should not be and demand my freedom of expression than to fairness into practice is neither easy nor allowed to sing offensive songs in risk the very possibility of having my rights comfortable. Supporting an amendment to the public; disintegrated and my liberty destroyed. So call Constitution is both. It is also unwieldy, me names. I don't care. You really can't hurt unnecessary, and singularly ineffective. It is a --51% believe the press has too much freedom me, because I don't intend to give you that much "feel good" measure which will do nothing but to do what it wants; power. cheapen the document and do a horrible disservice to every American. --31 % say a group should not be allowed to hold --Deborah Wiatt a rally for a cause or an issue if it offends others in the community; AUGUST/SEPTEMBER2000 POST AMERIKAN PAGE 13 · · • erna 1ves Upon speaking to his pediatrician, snl:!lv1u. ... _ did change! Ouroldest is 12 and as he gets older Imagine this. As you are waiting in line at a busy that he would have to be evaluated by a the less he has to take Ritalin. My second one, 9 supermarket, you see a mother and her preschool psychologist and referred us to a local specialist. years old, is a wonderful little boy and when it's aged child in the checkout lane next to you. The The psychologist told me that it was not possible just he and I we laugh and play and have a great mother appears to be tired and stressed while the to give an accurate diagnosis of ADHD in a child time. When we as a family go out in the child is full ofenergy . Pretty normal, right? You so young and that I would need to wait until he afternoon or before his Ritalin wears off, things then begin to notice that the child simply cannot was around the age of seven. She also told me are great, but when 5:30 hits and it's out of his or will not sit still despite the mother's numerous that the drug methylphenidate, more commonly system he becomes someone totally different. attempts at gaining and holding the child's known as Ritalin, should not be prescribed until attention. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the the complete examination can be done. Being a Price also adds that this medicine is most child begins to scream and throw a tantrum that conscientious mother, I decided to look for affective when combined with behavioral causes all eyes to be on them. You consider the information on ADHD and the use of Ritalin. age of the child and the stressful situation, you modifications. One of the downfalls of Ritalin is that, like other prescription drugs, it is not always assume that it has been a long day and that the There are both positive and negative aspects of successful. In ADD: The Natural Approach, child is probably just tired. You give the mother the drug Ritalin. Beverly Price, who has a Anderson and Piper say that when this happens a a sympathetic nod of your head, quickly pay the Masters in education with all research geared child may become violentor excessively irritable cashier and leave the store. Happy to be on your towards ADD, has a web site that discusses many and impossible to communicate with Some way home, you don't give the incident a second different problems and concerns that people may children also become withdrawn and depressed. thought because most children display these have ab out ADD/ ADHD. She also explores According to an article by Patricia Chisholm, types of behaviors from time to time, right? many different solutions to these problems. Judy Fox, mother of nine year old Ben Fox, said Some of her information concludes that the school authorities urged her to put her son on Being a mother of four children whose ages range prescription of Ritalin can be beneficial and has Ritalin: from four months to five years of age, I've seen been shown to reduce a wide range of these same behaviors and many other that are ADD/ ADHD symptoms. In a recent posting on At age six they wanted me to put my son on considered by ThePrescription fo r Natural Healing ADD/ ADHD message board on America Ritalin because they said he was disruptive in to be signs and symptoms of Attention Deficit OnLine, a mother of three boys who have been class. I said no and fought to have a teachers aid Hyperactivity Disorder. The term ADHD is used diagnosed with ADD/ ADHD had this to say : assist my son. When he turned nine, school to emphasize the hyperactive and impulsive I used to think I was crazy because I couldn't authorities in the Vancouver Island community aspects of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). In a handle my own children, then we got some that we live in demanded that I put my son on book written by Nina Anderson and Howard professional help and a prescription and our lives medication or he would have to be removed from Piper titled ADD: The Natural Approach, they define ADHD as "a neurological disorder relating school. We tried Ritalin for 10 days and it was terrible. He was lethargic, having night terrors, to abnormal connections in one's brain and faulty and sobbing all the time. We took him off the regulation of certain brain chemical messenger drug and got him into a program where he systems such as those that use dopamine and learned how to focus and control his anger better. norephinephrine." Use of drugs like You see, there are other choices. antidepresS AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER r PAGE 14 POST AMERIKAN 2000 The use of nutritionalsupplements may also help Tell your child that you love and support him of with the natural treatment of the disorder. her unconditionally. Deficiencies of essential fatty acidshave been Although life with your child may seem observed in children with ADD I ADHD. EF A's, challenging, it is important to remember that which may also be referred to as Omega-3's or children with ADD I ADHD can and do succeed. . Omega-6's, are of high importance to-people with Consult with your familyph ysician before trying ADHD because EFA's are considered to be food any of the aforementioned supplements, herbal for the brain. Deficiencies in Magnesium, Trace therapiesJ or diet changes. Have your child Minerals, Zinc, and Enzymes may also contribute thoroughly examined by a psychiatrist. to the signs and symptoms of ADD I ADHD . Although the exact cause of ADD I ADHD is not known, it is believed to be a neurobiological Besides diet and nutritionalsupplements, ADD: disorder. Unfortunately, there is no single or TheNatural Approach lists several other reliable test to diagnose ADD/ ADHD. A alternative therapies available to help with successful diagnosis and treatment depends on ADHD. Some of these alternatives are; both medical and social factors. A through aromatherapy, Chinese medicine, and herbal evaluation should be done to rule out other medicine. problf�msthat have symptoms similar to those of ADHD. Some children also may have learning Using aromatherapy can benefit peop�e wit� disabilities that appear to be ADHD, and other ADHD because of its relaxation benefits.This children have learning disabilities in addition to type of treatment directly affects the �imbic ADHD. System, the emotional part of our bram, by altering our emotions and thoughts t� "c�eate Because of nonphysical factors that cause ADHD ,, new biochemicals that bathe the bodily tissue .. like symptoms, an evaluation should also include Different types of essential oils can be used in an analysis of the child's home environment. For aromatherapy however, lavender, orange and example, a child may be having conflicts at home peppermint are found to be very beneficial in which cause this child to daydream, have trouble treating ADHD. concentrating, and otherthings that may be considered signs and symptoms of ADD/ ADHD. In Chinese medicine, acupuncture isused as a According to the CHADD �eb site, only relaxation technique. In this process, needles are pediatriciansor child psychiatrists familiar with placed in certain points along the body to ADHD can evaluate these nonphysical factors. In intensify the body's flow of energy. By doing conclusion, remember that even though a this, patients wi\h ADHD are believed to have a physiciancan prescribe Ritalin for your child heightened ability to deal with stress. there are many other factors involved in obtaining an accurate diagnosis of ADD/ ADHD. The use of herbal remedies to control Also, remember that you are not alone in your hyperactivity and ADD is slowly becoming a struggle and you do have other alternatives. more acceptable alternative to Ritalin. In Prescription for Natural Healing it says that --Michelle Dosage Valerian root extract has been very beneficial when treating children with ADD because of its calming effect on the nervous system. Other herbs commonly used for children with ADD I ADHD are Betonica, Ginkgo, Scutellaria, and Vinca minor. While some children respond well to herbal treatments, others·feelthat there has not been enough research done to warrant giving natural products to children. According to the organizationCHADD (Children · and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity r Disorder), "Early intervention is the key to maximizing positive outcomes for your child." I On their web site CHADD Facts 2, they list several tips to help you help your child with ADD/ADHD: ' Seek up-to-date, scientifically supported information about ADD I ADHD and educate other adults in your child's life about their disorder. we specialize i� Seek to become your child's best advocate. GM diesel repair Seek parent training from a qualified mental health professional experienced in AD I HD. complete auto�otive Seek support for yourself. and tru"Ck service foreign and domestic AUGUST/SEPTEMBER2000 POST AMER/KAN PAGE 15 ··� • • ev1ews, reviews, Earle has a gift to touch numerous styles, from CD reviews Liverpool rock to bluegrass, rock and roll to Guthrie could sing about union organizing, rock-a-billy. He stops at each station in racism, politics and economic inequality. But he Transcendent Blues, leaving polished gems also wove delightful songs about everyday life, Steve Earle: Transcendental Blues (E-Squared behind as he .moves on in his musical quest. immediate frustrations, love and life. Mermaid Records) Avenue stops at all those doors again. "Hot Rod Hotel" from the dark side and the bright and Steve Earle topped many "best" lists last year lively "Joe DiMaggio Done it Again" are daily with his bluegrass salute, The Mountain. His Rediscovering Greatness life snapshots. "Remember the Mountain Bed" last offering, Transcendental Blues, slightly and "Secret of the Sea" touch love, and like echoes those roots, though with more standard Billy Bragg & Wilco: Mermaid Avenue 11 Guthrie's music, moves beyond the personal to rock styling. (BMI) the cosmic. There's the whimsical "My Flying Saucer" and "I Was Born," sung by Natalie Perhaps its an odd personal reaction, but the .Various artists: 'Til we outnumber 'em Merchant, at first glance a children's song, but words floating my head while listening to (Righteous Babe) in flowing onward with methodic, ironic twists. this disc were "John Lennon." If the prolific and That seminal American folk artist Woody daring Beatie had lived, would he be writing Guthrie (1912-1967), whose anthems like "This The politics here is strident, particularly "All songs like this? Lost love, highway blues and Land is Your Land" every American knows, was You Fascists." "Aginst Th' Law" is playful an odd mix of spiritual themes dance 'round a hard-core union supporter, activist and artist, frustration with authoritarian local here, as Earle skates his own dark moments. a deep believer in people and hater of injustice. governments, though the live version on 'til we Does "transcendence" mean overcoming life's outnumber 'em is better. challenges or lunging deep into them to realize Currently a Guthrie revival is underway. The their true nature? Earle takes the second route, Smithsonian Institution has a major traveling 'Til we outnumber 'em has its moments, but is wrestling with his own demons and hopes. exhibit, 'This Land is Your Land," touring the also weak in some categories. This is a live country. Contemporary singer-songwriters are concert from 1996 at the Rock and Roll Hall of The lively bluegrass touch that made The rediscovering the prolific writer who was their Fame in Cleveland. Along with Billy Bragg Mountain a hit resounds again with 'The all-American prototype. and Woody's son Arlo, the Indigo Girls, Ani Galway Girl." And a superb prison trilogy Difranco and Bruce Springsteen join in the concludes the disc with "Until the Day I Die," This revival got a great boost two years ago musical salute. "All of My Life," and "Over Yonder." This when British rocker Billy Bragg and Central prison is both a literal one of stone, mortar and Illinois band Wilco released Mermaid Avenue, This is not new territory. A Hollywood Bowl executions, plus prison of pining, lost love. a collection of Guthrie song fragments updated concert after Guthrie's death is a long-time "Until the Day I Die," with its country twang, and put to music by Bragg. Bragg recently classic, uniting then folk icons like Joan Baez, could become a classic, with its ironic line, 'The followed with his latest release, Mermaid Judy Collins and Bob Dylan with Guthrie's only promise that I didn't break was to love you Avenue II, as interesting and compelling as the contemporaries. Folkways compiled a polished until the day I die." original. studio salute to Guthrie and Leadbelly a few years ago. There's some bright moments here, particularly the opening group song of "Hard Travelin" . Springsteen highlights Guthrie's playful children's songs and son Arlo does a nice turn with "Dust Storm Disaster". The Indigo Girls' harmony on "Ramblin' Round" is moody and effective. In some cases the disc is a little too ragged. Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe label deserves credit for pulling these artists ... okily, now thiltwe 'ue got your ilftention ... together under one banner, unfortunately, her rendition of Guthrie's dustbowl ballad The Movie Fan can deliver... "DoReMe" comes across as self-indulgent, a plaintive wail that lacks the fight-back spunk No, we do not carry sex fi lms of livelier versions. BUT we DO carry movies that ARE sexy Despite its shortcomings, it's great to see and interesting or if you prefer just plain contemporary songwriters drawing sustenance from that scraggly voice from the Oklahoma strange in an off-the-beaten-path hills that changed American music and showed kind of way. Hmmm? there's more to music than "moon" and "June". Check out any and enjoy. Th ink Movie Fan --Mike Matejka Every Mon 8t Wed Every Day think... DVDs / fo reign titles Rent 1 new release Rent 1 catalog title Union News movie sales / knowledgable staff Get 1 FREE Get 1 FREE (ofequal/l esser value) (ofequal/l esser value) easily the best mix of titles in the Twin Cities Every 12th movie is free! (with punch card> close to both campuses Must have Driver's License & Major Credit Card DOWDTOWD noRmHL 451 .4443 Sun-Thur 10:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. Fri-Sat 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. A PAGE16 POST AMERIKAN UCUst/SEPTEMBER 2000 • reviews Mystery & intrigue: Who killed Karen Silkwood? The Killing of Karen Silkwood Despite these frailties, Karen Silkwood was The author, Richard Rashke, covered the case by Richard Rashke also a high school honors student who took for the National Catholic Reporter. Layers of Cornell University Press science seriously. She knew plutonium's fascinating characters emerge. There's the ISBN # 0-8014-8667-x dangers as she handled it daily in poorly skull and dagger CIA-FBI types, darkly sealed glove boxes and breathed as it fell from hovering around the story's edge, as Silkwood' s leaking pipes. investigators find themselves tailed by Like a good murder mystery laced with a multi unregistered cars and receive mysterious layered spy story? Then look no further than When Karen Silkwood's Honda Civic ran off midnight warnings. Brash U. S. Senator Robert the recent re-issue of The Killing of Karen the Highway 74 that fateful night, did she Kerr, co-founder of Kerr-McGee, uses political Silkwood. lose control because of a drug overdose, as the power for self-enrichment. And finally, there's Oklahoma Highway Patrol claimed? Or were the strange alliance of Silkwood's family, Silkwood was an Oklahoma union activist, the mysterious dents in her rear fender clues of union activists, feminists, dogged attorneys and employed by energy industry giant Kerr-McGee a highway hit that sent her car off an Catholic clergy that probe beneath the murky to process highly toxic atomic plutonium rods. embankment and into a concrete culvert? If she surface, trying to answer the book's question, Frequent plant accidents alarmed her, so she was murdered, who wanted to kill her, and who killed Karen Silkwood? secretly gathered evidence on the company's why? lax policies. ·28-years-old, she died in a Enjoy this book at a number of levels. It's a good mysterious car accident on November 13, 1974, Although a little tedious at times, this book who-dun-it, carefully reconstructing all the en route to a meeting with a union very carefully documents numerous clues and false leads. It's a quick primer in representative and a New York Times reporter. possibilities, false leads and bizarre trails legal maneuvering, as maverick attorneys A few. days previously her apartment was that eventually lead to powerful Washington, challenge the corporate suits. And finally, it's contaminated with plutonium. D. C. sources. Why did the FBI refuse to the tale of one resolute but frightened young release its Silkwood files to congressional woman, fast maturing as she stares at death Karen Silkwood became a symbolic martyr for investigators? Was Karen's discovery of over daily in the yellow uranium clouds that choke the emerging women's movement and union 40 pounds of missing plutonium the real reason her workplace. health and safety activists. However, she was she was murdered? Has she stumbled onto a no saint. Silkwood' s marriage was broken, plutonium smuggling ring? Or was that missing --Mike Matejka from Livingston & McLean leaving her three children behind. She was no plutonium actually diverted by government Counties Union News stranger to sex, drugs and rock and roll. sources? Would Silkwood' s findings have exposed secret U. S. aid to nations eager to join the nuclear club? Karen Schmidt Book review: Exit 25 Utopia ,._ 6 By Steven Wishnia Alderman Ward (fhe Imaginary Press) Anyone still belaboring under the mistaken belief I'm not sure what a reader unf arniliar with the 409 E. that the rock-'n'-roll lifestyle is a glamorous one is Grove St., Bloomington cult rockdom will make of much of the author's herewith directed to Steven Wishnia's Exit 25 catalog of cool-but-definitely-not-top-forty songs. home: 829-6318 Utopia, a gritty chronological collection of short (If you're the type of music lover who knows the stories set in the fringe world of urban rockers. .. Velvet Underground's Loaded backwards and work: 217 244-2070 Opening with the '72 Republican convention forwards, then you'll feel right at home.) It's such e-mail: karens@uiutedu (Southern cops beating on a hapless crowd of <111essential part of the book - when Sid's demonstrators) and finishing with the nineties' girlfriend uses a mid-eightiesMarianne Faithful eviction of city squatters (NYC cops doing song to comment on their deteriorating Representing citizens' likewise on Lower East Side tenants), Wishnia's relationship we're expected to recognize the song book is a•harsh and scrupulously detailed and its meani.ng without him even mentioning account of life on the edge. the title - that it risks alienating less cultishly ideas, interests, i$sues /if inclined readers. Utopia's marginal musicians, caught up in the concer]ls to Bloomington rock-'n'-roll dream, stumble through a procession Still, Wishnia's approach mirrors the of low-rent clubs and poverty scale gigs. The protagonists" naive faith in the power of Real .•. book's centerpiece is a set of stories detailing a city government series of dismal cross-country tours -with Rock-'n'-Roll to triumph over commercial dross. substance-abusing bassist and father Sid The attempt may be ultimately be futile, but Berkowitz the connecting thread. Every one of there's some kind of crazy divine thrill in the bands Sid plays in seems on the verge of reading/listening to the effort. making it, but instead they wind up self rwuJ:v�:ftf1: AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER 2000 POST AMERIKAN PAGE 17 ·•ie • 1n Hey there Post Amerikans! Welcome home to The Whizzbanger Guide to Zine Distributors is clutching collection of poetry takes us through another edition of Mind Candy. First of all I out, loaded with international zine libraries, an incest survivor's life. Anybody with similar want to thank all the people who sent in zine stories and web sites. Shannon Cole Bank, issues will relate in the most painful way to "stuff" to be reviewed, zum of it I'll tackle in who also puts out Flash Point (to be peaked at each page. I wanted to stop reading it, but I this edition. Anybody who has, or knows of later) does a remarkable job putting this little was drawn into walking through this someone who has "stuff" to be reviewed should "must have" zine (for zinesters) together. nightmare with the writer. I applaud Mark send it in to me, so we can turn the world on to Order up this newest edition for three bucks at Valentine for opening up the other side of this your work. Unfortunately at this time I cannot Whizzbanger Productions, P. 0. Box 5591, gehenna. And I highly recommend that you review CDs, videos, cassettes, vinyl, etc. just Portland, Oregon, 97728. walk in these empathetic shoes that this text and photos, so hold on to that stuff fornow, collection places you in. okay? Now let's get down to Mind Candy. This Web Stuff time around we aregoing to dive into a stew of If you've been reading Mind Candy, you know Iron Feather Journal (P. 0. Box 480-004, Denver, alternative fun and some enlightening paths of I'm agog over web radio, the brilliant CO, 80248-0004) What a cool zine ...Fairly light. grandchild of shortwave radio. Now there is a large for a zine. It's a new insight into the clearing house for web radio stations, Global cyber scene; the mindset of computer hackers A little tidbit to share about TV Streams (www.globalstreams.com) with access and crackers and djs. It's laden with cyber jargon, loaded with dub I dj reviews and Has anybody seen the syndicated TV show to over 2,500 world wide radio stations. Of interesting underground articles. Iron Feather Total Recall 2070? If not, why not catch this course I still love www.WPKN.org and is a great primer for people waiting to enter little sleeper-cult hit. The title, to me, is a bit www.WNHU.org, but what a super way to "the other cyber universe." If one connection confusing because it is much more like the movie connect to the world at large. This is just the leads to another connection, this zine will Blade Runner than it is like the movie Total beginning of the web radio invasion. Surrender! certainly put you on your first step, a fun step at Recall. It's quite a visual trip and the script Resistance is futile! that! carries its weight. My local NBC affiliate carries it after midnight (12:15 am, est) on For the morbid, or just those who like to plan Thought Bombs ($2.00: P. 0. Box 721, Sundays, which is the kind of time slot you can ahead, www .deathclock.com will give you an Homewood, IL, 60430) Produced by Anthony expect to find it in. If you liked Blade Runner, approximate time when you'll leave this Rayson and family. This is a true zine in size replete with messages between the lines, you'll earthly place. It's all very odd, but worth and style. It has imaginative poetry, Francis love Total Recall 2070. checking out. Another curious site is www.run.edu/-wkovarik/hist/ hist.html Baconesque drawings along with adorable children's drawings. Farmland environmental Updates (don't cha just love simple web addresses). Anyway, it is the environmental history time activism, the plight of Iraq' s children, and The Zine Guide #3 (P. 0. Box 5467, Evanston, line packed full of "green" info that you can other worth-your-time-reading. But where IL, 60204) is now available with thousands of stump your friends with and draw inspiration Thought Bombs shines is in its prisoner related zine listings and brief reviews. As always, it's from. Those of you that are, rightly, concerned articles and issues and rich articles about the worth ten times the price of six bucks. If you're that you leave a little piece of your personal incarcerated. Thought Bombs shows us all the hurting for a zine just right for your head, the data behind each time you log on to a web site, insanity of the U. S. corrections, which is now zine guide is the place to turn to. www.cookiecentral.com will show you how to locking up two million people, 25% of the toss your cookies off of snoopy sites. Definitely world's prisoner, in a country that is only 5% of Lily on the Beach #8 (40 East Main St. Box 170, worth dicking on to. the world's population. Thought Bombs shows Newark, Delaware, 19711) just graced my path. us that the cure has become worse the initial This issue reunites us with "Jamie," as she problem. The juxtaposition of Anthony's son's weaves deeper into light and dark planes of Review Corner drawings and the brutally honest prison existence in the secret world of "The Dark When I put out the message that Mind Candy articles is brilliant, proving to us that there is Traveler." We follow Jamie as she unlocks the was looking for "stuff" to review, I was still hope in our children and love in the world. language of creation, cracks secret codes, as she delighted on what the heavens poured on to me. One of the gems that came my way was continues to evolve into something not yet The Human Kindness Foundation (R. R. 1, Box Hillbillies and Living Ghosts: A Poetic defined, yet wonderful. The Lily on the Beach 201-N, Durham, NC, 27705) Biography of a Survivor by Mark Valentine series always leaves you thirsting for more, and The Human Kindness Foundation was founded (Celtic Heart Publications, 912 West Mulberry this issue teases your esoteric taste buds with by Bo and Sita Lozoff many moons ago. The H. #2, Bloomington, IL , 61701). This heart some of Fran's artwork, always a treat. Indulge K. F. has brought love, light, and a higher yourself with this new treat. consciousness to countless people, many of them incarcerated. Indeed, the central focus of the H. K. F. is to bring a be"tter way to exist within the world behind bars, but their newsletters have a wider appeal, covering Buddhism, poetry, peace through positive action, some tasteful prison art, and stories that will put life in perspective for anybody who takes life for granted. The Lozoffs have been joined by a wonderful troupe of life helpers including such notables as Thich Nhat Hanh. There is still ; room for anyone wishing to help out in this i noble cause. Write them and ask for a sample • of their newsletter and see if your path blends : with the path of the Human Kindness I Foundation. Justice Wa tch (1120 Garden St., Cincinnati, OH, 45214) Yep, another prison zine, but it's not just another prison zine, it's well sculpted and - - ·-- ·"- -- PAGE 18 POST AMERIKAN AUGUSTI SEPTEMBE R 2000 ··ie staffed by wonderful people, loaded with The Realist (P. 0. Box 1230, Venice, CA, 90294) delay. Until next time,- inay you all bathe in poetry, zum prison art work, and insightful I'm revisiting The Realist because, as peace and harmony, enjoy each second of life, articles. If it has any fault it is that it's a bit previously reported in Mind Candy, I thought and waste not a moment. short, but for those people that want to pack in The Realist was folding after zillions of issues. a bunch of info on this topic in a short an=mount Fortunately, Paul I Helms' house, it's Shannon Colebank' s zine, mayflies after a night of love making. Only a F lashp oi n t. Colebank, who produces a couple rare few that have good friends, like you, of printed goodies, tackles the tough subjects, survive to give you the other side of the story and her approach is nothing short of and to amuse you like nothing else can. Spread controversial. Some parts of Flashpoint I you love, light, and pennies ... really disliked; some parts I was thankful that I hope you enjoyed this edition of Mind Candy. I absorbed the rare tidbits she comes up with. If not, shootme! Send your comments, love No matter what your take is on Flashpoint, no letters, and text and photos to me without matter what your point of view is, Flashpoint is a must have for people who question the standard answers and hype put our in the mainstream press. Her research is impressive; her writing is well conceived, which she amalgamates with reprints from other periodicals. For three bucks you can't go wrong. In fact, send in for back issues as well. Pro or con, you'll be wiser for the investment in funds and time. for less than the price of a cup of coffe e ... {/J p:; o AUGUSTI SEPTEMBER 2000 POST AMERIKAN PAGE 19 ews Along with poor human rights in China, the told her the truth -- her fall in the company Both U. S. & Chinese legislation bodes poorly for American workers. parking lot was covered by Workers' workers losers in trade The Economic Policy Institute estimates 900,000 Compensation, and she should receive U. S. jobs lost under the trade pact. compensation for both injuries. Her employer, pact however, now denies responsibility for either The AFL-CIO' s effort was part of its campaign injury. So one witnesses the accident, no one saw Ever bounce around the playground on Keds to "Make the Global Economy Work for her give notice to her employer, and her sneakers, those all-American shoes that kids Working Families." The U. S. Senate is doctor's records said nothing about where the have worn foryears? expected to vote on the pact in July. accident occurred. Ever wonder where Keds are made today -- try For more information, visit the AFL-CIO we With little evidence her attorney was unable the Kunshan Sun Hwa Footwear Co. in Kunshan site at www.aflcio.com or write the National to persuade the employer to voluntarily City, China. If you visit you'll find 15-year Labor Committee for a copy of "Made in compensate her for past and future medical old girls assembling sneakers with their bare China," 275 7th Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY 10001, expenses and her permanent injuries. The hands, given only toothbrushes to apply the or visit their site at www.nlcnet.org. lawyer is not litigating her case, but her toxic glue. They are locked behind 15-foot tall mistakes are making it much harder her the walls, topped with barbed wire. After their --from Livingston & McLean Counties Union lawyer to help her. long workday, when they finally leave the News factory, they must do so in military, single-file Susan made several key mistakes after her march, according to the National Labor first accident: Committee's latest report, "Made in China." Mistakes can sabotage 1) No one can verify that she notified her employer of her injury. When injured, Chinese workers like these, and American your workers' comp immediately notify your employer. Oral workers forced into economic competition with notification is often best, but give notice in the them, are the real losers in the recently claim presence of a reliable witness, like a union completed China trade deal, passed by by the Chicago Area Committee on steward. Be careful what you put in writing. Congress May 24. Occupational Safety & Health Get a copy of any written statements. 2) She accepted legal advice from her Although the U. S. had trade relations with Many of us never think much about getting hurt employer. Instead, Susan could have recieved China, annually that relationship was on the job. Unfortunately, when we don't know a free consultation from a Workers' reviewed, allowing critics an opportunity to about the Workers' Compensation system, we Compensation attorney. highlight Chinese labor and human rights can make bad mistakes. Susan learned the 3) Using her health insurance instead of abuses. Now, in the name of "free trade," the hard way. Workers' Compensation meant she had to pay door is wide open, with few opportunities to substantial medical expenses, and received no insure decency. One morning, Susan parked in the company compensation for lost wages or her permanent parking lot, and walked toward the entrance. injury. Workers' Compensation would have Area representatives Tom Ewing and Ray Suddenly, she slipped in an icy hole and fell paid all medical expenses, a portion of her lost LaHood, both Republicans, supported Democrat heavily on her knee. No one saw the fall, so wages, and compensated her for her permanent Bill Clinton's effort to pass the China bill. she got up and hobbled inside. injury. Rock Island-area Democrat Lane Evans voted 4) She failed to provide her doctor with a against the effort. She talked to Kyle, the company safety complete and accurate description of her manager, alone in his office (mistake #1). He accident to show it was work related. The AFL-CIO estimates corporate lobbyists was nice to her (or so she thought) and sent her Consequently, her medical records don't support spend $12 million advertising and promoting to a doctor. Kyle said that accidents that occur her claim that the accident happened at work. the bill. Although disappointed with the outside the building aren't covered by Workers' outcome, the AFL-CIO said the debate helped Compensation (mistake #2). He told her to use By learning and carefully following the correct focus attention on China's behavior. AFL-CIO her health insurance (mistake #3). Then, procedure, you can help yourself and your co President John Sweeney said bill supporters, Susan told the doctor only that she had workers to get proper benefit after an on-the-job both Democrat and Republican, "bowed to big slipped and fallen, but didn't mention where it accident. money" to approve unconditional trade with a happened (mistake #4). "human rights violator of epic proportions." --from Livingston & McLean Counties Union This accident was expensive for Susan. She News "It's sad that the president secured his 'legacy' missed two months pay for the time off work by forging an alliance with the very members of plus her health insurance policy required her Congress who tried to destroy him and our to pay substantial deductibles. After surgery, working families agenda a year ago," Sweeney steroid injections, and occupational therapy, said. Susan returned to work. The AFL-CIO, environmental and religious A year later, during a work speedup, Susan groups mobilized members and average citizens collided with a burly co-worker. She went against the bill. sprawling and, again, injured her knee. This time, she filed for Workers' Compensation. Profits, however, held the day. Beginning May Her employer, however, refused to provide JOHN AND JANE Q. WORKER 22, treatment, claiming that her previous fall MAINST. the New York Times reported, business EVERYWHERE, THE.WORLD interests launched a three-day, $1 million caused her injury. advertising blitz as part of "corporate America's costliest legislative campaign ever." Again, Susan used her health insurance, paid large deductibles, and list thousands of dollars Just what did this mean for Congress members? during the sixteen weeks she was off work. A According to the Center for Responsive Politics, month later �ter she was discharged from the average contribution by the Business treatment and returned to work, her employer Roundtable in the 1999-2000 election cycle to laid her off because of a "work shortage." House members who voted for China trade has been $44,000. Finally, she went to see a lawyer. Her lawyer PAGE 20 POST AMERIKAN AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000