Views in brief

Marching together at Stella D'oro

MY NAME is Olimpio Trombetta, and I want to thank you for marching together with us on that coldest day of the year ("Marching for Stella D'oro workers").

I've been a worker at Stella D'oro for 26 years, and I was so overwhelmed to march with you people. Thank you for your support, you will never be forgotten!

I shot video of the march and speeches, and posted it on YouTube if people are interested.
Olimpio Trombetta, from the Internet

Fighting abuse of Muslims

THANK YOU for Alana Smith's excellent article about Fahad Hashmi ("Plunged into a nightmare").

You might be interested to know about Project SALAM, a Web-based legal project that features a unique researched database with over 400 entries for unjustly prosecuted Muslims in the U.S. since 9/11. It's a joint project of several groups, one of them the Free Fahad committee.

The domestic prosecutions of Muslims on spurious terrorism charges is an issue that is only now beginning to receive attention. With a new Justice Department, we are hoping to persuade top officials to do an investigation of all these cases, particularly with regard to prosecutorial tactics and abuse.

The site features a link to a petition, the text of which is a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Holder, outlining the grounds for our requests. The public is invited to sign, and all signatures will be forwarded, along with the letter, to Obama and Holder.

Fahad Hashmi's case is one of the worst cases currently in play, but is one of very many other cases of domestic abuse (legal, constitutional, as well as physical) of Muslims presented in the database. Thanks again for bringing this case to the attention of the public.
Jeanne Finley, from the Internet

What the Bund represented

KYLE MATZPEN'S article, "Apartheid in my name" was, for the most part, an excellent response to the Zionist equation of the Israeli state with Jews worldwide. As another anti-Zionist Jew, I was inspired by Matzpen's rejection of appeal to support the criminal occupation of Palestine and war in Gaza in the name of "tribal unity."

However, as the grandson of a Bundist, I found the quote from Lenin at the end of the article a bit off target. Lenin and the Bund debated the question of whether or not Yiddish-speaking workers in Russia and Poland needed their own independent organizations within the all-Russian labor and socialist movement. All-Russian Marxian socialists--Bundists, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks--rejected Zionism.

In fact, the Bund was the Zionists' (especially the "socialist"-Zionists) major competitor for the support of Yiddish-speaking workers in Russia and Poland--arguing that the struggle against anti-Semitism and for socialism was in Russia and Poland, not in Palestine.

Being clear about what the Bund represented--a socialist alternative to Zionism among Yiddish-speaking workers--is not simply a matter of historical clarity. Today, the Bund's critique of Zionism and insistence that the struggle against anti-Jewish racism is at home and cannot be won by colonizing another people is a key element of the re-emerging anti-Zionist minority among Jews in the U.S. and other industrial capitalist societies.
Charlie Post, from the Internet

Don't put guns on Rhode Island campuses

IT HAS been announced within the past few weeks that three main Rhode Island college campuses--Rhode Island College, University of Rhode Island and all three campuses of the Community College of Rhode Island--are under likely consideration to have their campus security guards armed.

Discussion forums have been scheduled at three-week intervals to allow students and faculty to voice their opinions about this proposed travesty. These forums have been set at inconvenient times, however--when the majority of people are in class, at work or at faculty meetings.

The community is overwhelmingly against this proposal, with only law enforcement and the offices of the governor and attorney general in favor of it in order to "have another tool at their disposal."

We are being told to support this initiative using the scare tactic of remembrances of 9/11 and the Virginia Tech school shootings. We are not being told, however, that Virginia Tech security guards were armed at the time of the shooting there.

Virtually no violent crime at all--less than a handful of sexual assaults--have happened on any of these campuses in a decade. In fact, most arrests are for drug possession, overwhelmingly marijuana, or underage drinking. Theft is second to substance use, but its incidence has dropped.

We are told these campuses are just a few remaining of those remaining without armed security. So? As if that justifies the carrying of a weapon capable of killing people--and when law enforcement is trained for aggression, just like the military.

Remember the killings of Sean Bell in New York and Oscar Grant in Oakland--or a recent incident here in Rhode Island, in which an unarmed, mentally disturbed man held a small knife and was shot numerous times. He is currently in very critical condition.

Also, remember that all of these universities are seeing tuition rise every semester while students are being forced into massive debt that will take many years to erase. In some cases, students are unable to get the loans they need and are putting off their educations. Rhode Island is tied as the state having the highest level of unemployment, with college students unable to find jobs they need after graduating to just begin paying off the debts they were forced to incur.

Every single reason under the sun, and then some, should spur students to organize against this draconian proposal.
Greg Morse, Providence, R.I.

Facing death for being undocumented

I READ the article about Omar Castillo on your Web site, and it caught my attention because my dad is going trough the same situation right now ("Denying care to the most vulnerable").

The thing is that both of his kidneys are badly damaged, and he needs a transplant as soon as possible. He cannot get a kidney transplant because he is undocumented. The hospital refuses to give him a transplant.

All of his brothers and I are willing to donate a kidney, but so far, we have not found anyone that can help us. No one in my family is working, and my dad lost his job because of this problem. Without any financial help from the government, it's impossible for us to pay such an amount of money.

If you can please provide us with any help or information about institutions or private organizations that could help us, it will be of great help. Thank you.
Gustavo Vega, from the Internet