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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>WONDERFUL reply letter David !<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>David J.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces@lists.chambana.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>David Green via Peace-discuss<br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, November 24, 2018 2:31 PM<br><b>To:</b> peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net<br><b>Subject:</b> [Peace-discuss] Letter to N-G editor<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>In “Another Thanksgiving” (11/22) the editors write that in spite of “general” affluence, “too many people suffer from a variety of maladies that range from poverty and family dysfunction to physical and mental illness … Let’s be sure as the Christmas season approaches to keep those people in our hopes and prayers.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>The assumption is that “those people” are not among those “general” individuals reading this editorial. Given the expense of a newspaper and its lack of political interest in “those people,” this is likely mostly correct. Nevertheless, it’s rude to talk about others in a room in which they might be present, no less so in an objectifying and condescending manner.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Moreover, poverty is not a “malady” but a structural condition enforced by radical social inequality. This inequality adversely affects at least half of us: those who are on the short end of federal policies, historically supported by <i>News-Gazette</i> editors, that have seen four decades of de-industrialization, “free trade,” de-unionization, enforced unemployment, and decreases in federal and state funding for social programs—all in the midst trillions for criminal wars, supported by the editors, and fought largely by “those people.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Certainly, the other “maladies” mentioned will always be with us. However, the risk factors associated with them would be significantly decreased by the very feasible elimination of poverty, the existence of which is a political choice made by predatory capitalists and their acolytes in the media and academia. In this context, appeals to “Christian” charity are at best disingenuous.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>