November-December 2000:
Nonviolent Activist Editorial
Freeing Burma
Acronyms of Acrimony in Africa
Radical Reading
Radical Literary Quiz #1
Letters

Homepages:
War Resisters League
The Nonviolent Activist

Letters:

More On Investing

Thanks for the two letters in the September-October NVA questioning “responsible” investing or any investing at all. I hope that the NVA will challenge us to analyze investing—who benefits and who loses—and the interest/usury system on which it is built. Can articles on alternatives to investing which would promote economic justice and not “buy into the (capitalist) system” be included in future issues?
                               —Larry Dansinger Monroe, ME

Although I admire the recycling dedication of Bruce Howard of the New Jersey YouthPeace local, I must remind him that the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech allowed him to write and have published his article, “Dealing Death to Youth” (NVA, September-October). it was mailed via the U.S. government’s postal service and was placed in my mailbox by a U.S. government employee. This employee did not decide to throw the NVA out so that I could not read its antimilitary views. Perhaps my letter carrier is a vet and disagrees with WRL, yet he still placed the magazine in my mailbox.

WRL has the right to speak out and print articles against war. Conversely, the U.S. government has the right to preach for war. Why? Because of freedom of speech.

My point: Bruce Howard took military recruiting brochures from Taco Bell and a high school and threw the brochures into a recycling bin, thus preventing other citizens from reading them. This is censorship and violation of freedom of speech. He should be ashamed considering all the work WRL has done to get their voice heard.
                               —Richard Maxfield Inverness, FL

YouthPeace Coordinator Asif Ullah responds:
        Neither WRL nor any other organization with a dissenting viewpoint is allowed entry in most federal spaces—such as post offices—or in most private institutions, like Taco Bell. Putting counter-militarism information there would be considered breaking the law. Unfortunately, freedom of speech is a tad more complicated than what Maxfield reduces it to. How much of our tax dollar goes towards equipping people with a more objective truth about the U.S. military? As un-obvious as it appears, the government’s First Amendment war sermon right has somewhat of a different consequence than a young man discarding love-is-hate, violence-laden propaganda.

Just a brief note to let you know how much I am grateful for your magazine. It lets me know what the issues are, who’s protesting and why, way before the corporate media have a clue to what’s going on.

Keep up the good work!
                              —Michael P. Hill Swedesboro, NJ