Letters  

Dear Republic:

I've been reading your paper since I arrived in Vancouver a year ago, and within this short stretch of time, I've noticed quite a change, from creative, progressive analysis, to downright looniness.

Regarding "Go Away" (Issue 146), I don't get it. My family and I immigrated from the US a year ago, out of disgust with not just the Bushies but the general slide to the extreme right over the past couple of decades. We were involved in social issues in the states and continue to be so here. We made numerous visits here prior to the move.

Although we'd been warned about negative feelings towards Americans, we found people here to be welcoming and happy to see us here, especially when we explained our reasons for coming. Had we received a few "go away" notes, we might have thought twice.

Your article claims to understand the difference between right-wing governments and those who oppose them, yet praises actions targeting the latter. A note merely trashing the Bushies left on our old car would have met with full agreement, but a note telling us to leave sends an entirely different message.

—Jon Scop, Vancouver

Dear Republic:

I agree with Kevin Potvin that Iran should be encouraged to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent to American aggression. But our own situation might necessitate a similar response.

For years we have laboured under the assumption that, if we are nice to Uncle Sam, he is going to be nice to us. The recent softwood lumber debacle may give us pause to think.

It is reasonable to assume that, as long as we suck up to our neighbours to the South, we can expect little direct aggression. We might even begin to believe that they really like us, but it will be an illusion, for we would do well to remember J.F. Dulles, who, when speaking of foreign countries, said: „...pat them a little bit and make them think you are fond of them.‰ No, there won't be any real love lost, for the self-appointed saviours of the world won't rest until they have brought the rest of the world under their domination.

If, however, we were to steer a more independent course, instead of selling out wholesale to a country that has created mayhem and terror around the world for more than one hundred years, we may need to develop our own atomic weapons as a deterrent to future American aggression. And while we are at it, we might want to disassociate ourselves from NAFTA, NATO, the IMF and the World Bank, mere tools in the hand of fascists engaged in empire building.

—Andy Ross, Vancouver