Letters

Neil Young

After the first time I listened to Neil Young’s Living With War I listened to it non-stop for three weeks, over and over, basically obsessed with the lyrics and how real they are. Finally someone that can get some attention said what I and many others have wanted to say, but don’t have the PR to be heard (funny, you would think your congressman [who works for “you”] would return an e-mail when it says he will respond if you ask. Well, it’s been three weeks and nothing from the wonderful Denny Hastert, speaker of the House. Must be busy selling his oil stocks?).

I am ashamed locally of the station WXRT that has played Neil’s latest tunes “sparingly” at best and usually at obscure hours such as 3:35 a.m. XRT has long been the voice of the ’60s and ’70s generation, and we have followed them through the years loyally, but it now appears that a false facade (corporate) is in place as they fail to respond as well to my questions. And on their “new releases Thursday” (the day they play album tracks from new releases that week) they ignored Neil’s album. Funny, they’re sponsoring and promoting the CSNY show here in late summer? Go figure. I hope Neil gives them a piece of his mind publicly, they deserve it. Well, thanks Neil, Bruce and PJ, and now the Dixie Chicks. If only other “responsible” sources would stand up and speak the truth we could rid ourselves of the rot in D.C. Hopefully the bandwagon jumpers will get going.

Mark G.
Chicago, Ill.

 

Ray Nagin vs. Tom Potter

Not only is Ray Nagin an incompetent racist but he’s also a Pat Robertson want-to-be (I’m not sure if these are two separate concepts, but go with it).

Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country, and surely he [God] doesn’t approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves.

Also, when is he going to get canned for calling for a chocolate New Orleans? Can you imagine a white mayor calling for a vanilla Portland? Yeah right – it would be pure enjoyment to see what my beloved fellow PSU protesters would be up to the day that happens.

Consistency here, people. There are jackasses on both extremes. Pat Robertson and Ray Nagin are both idiots. Hardly people I would expect the Vanguard to admire.

Mark Smith

 

Commencement protest

As a student at Portland State University, I once read a sign a student had posted there that read, “Stop making sense.” The “celebratory protest” scheduled on campus against immigration reform shows just how much PSU students have adhered to that suggestion. These PSU students must surely reside more in their collective limbic system than they do in their collective neo-cortexes. No wonder the City of Portland would prefer that PSU remain in the shadows instead of developing a presence in the city.

These protesting persons are obviously dimwitted individuals who are easy prey for hyperbole and deception. Let me see if I can understand the thinking of these protesters.

Let’s say someone breaks into your house. You discover this intruder and insist that s/he leave. But the intruder says, “I’ve made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors; I’ve done all the things you don’t like to do. I’m hard working and honest, except for breaking into your house, and, therefore, deserve to stay.”

According to the protesters, not only must you let the intruder stay, you must also add the intruder to your family’s insurance plan and provide other benefits to the intruder and the intruder’s family. If you try to call the police, the intruder threatens that s/he will call out friends who will picket your house, carrying signs that proclaim the intruder’s right to be there.

What a deal the intruder expects. In exchange for contributing a fraction of the cost of upkeep, the intruder expects to live in your house and, if you do not allow it, accuse you of selfishness, prejudice and being “anti-housebreaker.”

If this makes sense to you, then by all means protest and demonstrate your emotionalism and stupidity. If this sounds insane to you, support officials like DeFazio and others who wish to bring sense to the issue.

Stop mollycoddling the Spanish-speakers! If you are going to provide signage to those who speak Spanish, then you must do so for all other world languages. If you do not, then that is favoring one group over another, and that is what constitutes racism! If you want to observe one of the greatest racist groups since the time of lynching blacks in the South, look into the group calling itself La Raza, which in Spanish means “The Race.”

Portland State’s reputation falters because of the stupidity of some of the more emotionally charged and foolish members of its student body. Right now, the Spanish-speaking illegal immigrants are referring to you when they utter under their breath, “Suckers!”

Kendall Bergstrom, immigration attorney
Carbondale, Ill.