Jan sent in a "letter to the editor" of "The Citizen" in Southam, Canada, and shared it with a few friends on the net. I find it to be a well-written statement, more enduring than the "air show" issue it nominally addresses. Especially incisive is her pithy summary: "Just as in earlier times it was important to separate church and state, it is essential now that we separate Big Business and government." -rkm •••@••.••• http://cyberjournal.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 To: •••@••.••• and others From: •••@••.••• (Jan Slakov) Subject: my letter Here's my letter-to-the-ed. As you will see, almost no chance of being printed. (We must remember that the Citizen is a Southam paper & Southam is owned by Conrad Black and I end my letter with a call to limit corporate control of the media!) All the best, Jan --------------------------------- to: •••@••.••• Dear Editor, June 3 The op ed "Air show celebrates tools of oppression" printed on May 29 helped bring the reality of what weapons are really used for home to me. Now I learn that furture air shows will likely be cancelled because of lack of funds. (See the article in the Sunday _Citizen_.) Why must we wait until we run out of money to stop the "air show" (more accurately called a "war show")? On a larger scale, why must we destroy the earth's resources before we stop wasting them on useless consumer "goods" and militarism? Perhaps one sentence from the op ed piece (a sentence which was edited out of the article as it was printed I believe) gives us a clue: Reflecting on a long military career involving action in several countries, retired marine General Smedley Butler in 1935 commented: "I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers." Our democracies have been hijacked by Big Business, transnational companies so big they have economies bigger than those of many nations. We elect governments which seem incapable of acting in our interests. They talk about jobs but keep favouring companies and technologies which require fewer and fewer workers to transform more and more of nature into things that end up in landfills or worse. Just as in earlier times it was important to separate church and state, it is essential now that we separate Big Business and government. We, the people, must get in there and govern ourselves. We must not allow corporate contributions to political parties or candidates. We must stop patronizing the big multinationals and instead patronize small, responsibly managed businesses and set up co-ops to free ourselves from dependence on the big corporations. We must limit corporate control of wealth and of the institutions necessary for the functioning of healthy democracies (such as the media). Sincerely, Jan Slakov, Secretary, Enviro-Clare, Weymouth, Nova Scotia B0W 3T0. ------------------------------------------------------------------------