One, the ruling strictly violates the U.S. Supreme Court precedent of the 1978 ruling of Bakke v. The Regents of the University of California. The other major problem is that this ruling claimed that diversity in education was not a "compelling state interest." The truth is that in the state of Michigan, along with the rest of the United States, minorities have been excluded from higher education due to inadequate resources.

If it is not a compelling state interest to help boost the amount of minority enrollment, along with providing education to people of all socio-economic classes, then the court might as well reinstate segregation and ignore another U.S. Supreme Court ruling like Brown v. Board of Education.

Ari Paul
Ann Arbor, Michigan
 
 
Inequality for vets
Veterans of World War II and Korea are passing away at the rate of 1,500 persons a day, yet there has been a terrible inequity persisting over 20 years. Military Service Retirees effectively must fund their own disability compensation by forfeiting one dollar of earned retirement pay for each dollar of disability compensation received from the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The excuse for not addressing this issue has been budget constraints and the national debt. This is especially galling in light of president Bush's $1.6 trillion in tax reductions for the rich.

William Jung
Flagstaff, Arizona
 
 
Foot-and-mouth disease
On a recent trip to Ireland the effects of foot-and-mouth disease were evident to all travelers who were advised not to travel to Northern Ireland and to stay away form rural areas.

One farmer told us many farmers could be wiped out of their livelihood and lose much of what they had worked for all their lives if the disease spreads to the country. Much of the Irish economy is dependent on agriculture, which also effects dairy, garment, and some of the liquor industry.

All who discussed the situation showed great concern for the farmers in Ireland as well as their counterparts in the United Kingdom.

Dennis Chambers
Chicago, Illinois  
 
 
Honoring Chuck Sheehan
An article on the life of Charles "Chuck" Sheehan in the Los Angeles Times described him as an "ardent unionist." He was the Southern California president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) in 1981 when U.S. president Ronald Reagan fired him and all other controllers in the union for going on strike. Sheehan relentlessly fought the U.S. government for the union's right to exist and was still active at the time of his death.

He opened many doors for those who wanted help workers on strike at Eastern Airlines. He spoke at the Militant Labor Forum several times regarding the PATCO strike.

Virginia Garza
Los Angeles, California

 
Appeal to Vicente Fox
Compañeros, please publish the following letter to Mexican president Vicente Fox. Hasta la victoria siempre (Until victory, always).

President Vicente Fox: Mexicans that live in other parts of the globe, like other Mexicans, yearn for peace with dignity, liberty, and justice. We hope to obtain very soon what we long for. We urge you to consider that we only want equal rights for all Mexicans, whether they are mestizos or indigenous. The indigenous people must be given special recognition for their great ability to resist for more than five centuries the cruelest of actions.

We need creation of jobs in our Mexico, the immediate solution to the conflict in Chiapas, the creation of a fund for the assistance of all retirees, and above all the removal of obstacles to the right of the people to choose how to govern themselves in each region.

In economic exile and missing the land of our birth.

José Sandoval López
Ignacio Valdovinos
San Jose, California
 

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of interest to working people.

Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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