Letters  

Dear Republic:

Dear Republic: Tom Prior’s letter in your issue 143 begs for reply.

Yes, automobiles, as we know them, are inefficient machines compared to many. They are, nonetheless, like it or not, a part of our culture and our society that is not going to disappear overnight.

To suggest that the smoke show, or burnout contest, which is part of the Road Kings show in September, is a gross contributor to pollution locally, is at the very least misdirected.

I am a chapter governor of the Vintage Car Club of Canada. As such I rub shoulders frequently with representatives of Specialty Vehicle Association of BC, National Association of Antique Automobile Clubs of Canada, and other organizations representing a cross-section of the hobby. From there I can speak with assurance and qualification that the owners of specialty vehicles prize their toys and keep them up meticulously. That upkeep includes keeping their engines in the finest state of tune-up. As such, most of these vehicles will pass an air care test any day.

A smoke show under such circumstances is mainly a few minutes of relatively harmless fun, and that, dear readers, is something we have too little of these days in our over-regulated world. A few minutes of tire smoke pales in comparison to the massive amounts of air pollution from other sources over the same period of time. I would consider complaints of a smoke show to equate to killing one fly and thinking that you have succeeded in exterminating the whole hatch for a year.

Tom, if you are seriously going to get on the pollution bandwagon, then be prepared to pee with the big dogs and leave the small ones alone. For instance, consider the amount of chlorine atoms released into the ozone layer from one space shuttle launch. You will quickly find that it is much more than all the leaking Freon from appliances worldwide for a year. For that matter, also look at China and all its industry right now. We are all on the same planet after all.

Also, might I suggest that if you really are that serious about our environment, then politically push for some really unpopular ideas, like zero population growth and a zero growth economy.

—Cam Clayton, Kaslo BC

Dear Republic:

I am always anxious to read every issue of The Republic when it comes in the mail. It is great to be able to read it online when I am out of town as well. I am a commercial fisherman and am in Ucluelet, Vancouver Island, at present. The printed version is not available here but I read it online.

It is a pleasure to be able to support your publication and it is a welcome change from the usual "fascist" Asper press or the Globe and Mail, which is almost as fascist.

These publications are so pro-Israeli they could be published by Ann Coulter. Maybe they should feature Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly too. They would never dream of publishing anything by someone like Noam Chomsky or Norman Finkelstein, but those publications glorify Israeli militarism with columnists such as Barbara Amiel, Margaret Wente, and good old Conrad Black and Norman Spector.

Conrad Black's latest article screams for more Israeli violence against Lebanon. Crimes against humanity cannot be perpetrated against Arabs because, according to Black, the Arabs are sub-human. I think that Mr Black makes Joseph Goebbels or Ernst Zundel look like nice people with his overtly racist comments and lust for blood.

As for “Steve” Harper, I think that he should have a hyphenated surname such as Harper-Mulroney or Harper-Quisling. I doubt that most readers of the Vancouver Sun, Province, or Globe and Mail would know who Mr Quisling was, but the level of historical acumen of The Republic's readers is probably a bit higher.

I really must express thanks to Jean Chrétien, our former Prime Minister, who would not allow Lord Black to remain a Canadian citizen and sit in the British House of Lords. It costs a lot to incarcerate a criminal, and he should live in prison in another country at their expense. It costs enough to house Clifford Olson for the Canadian public. I hope Conrad gets a nice cell for his thievery, perhaps Guantanamo for his US thievery charges of fraud. But I think that that Guantanamo is for political prisoners. Maybe he can serve some of his time in the Borstal prison, which is where a thief like him belongs.

—Richard Roussin, Vancouver

Dear Republic:

Re: “Go Away” Notes (this issue, earlier published online).

How can you say it is all right to blame American tourists, who may or may not support the Bush administration, for their country’s foreign policy? When you’re visiting America, do you want people putting notes on your car because of some half-baked policy the Harper Tories cooked up? Do we harass visitors from China, Iran, Russia, or any of the countless other backwardly governed countries for their leaders' policies?

Be against the decisions of the US Government—not people who happen to be from or born in that country.

—Gary McKenna, Kamloops, BC