Name game

This is in response to the letter chastising Raf Katigbak’s use of the word “faggotry” [“Faggotry no joke,” Aug. 24]. Damn, I just moved here from Vancouver and was hoping that it was just a myth that the gays in this town personify only all the negative stereotypes (including being humourless and bitchy) and none of the fun ones.

Raf used the word “faggotry,” not “faggot,” which is the historically offensive term. I bet Jude Allen Arsenault has a big problem with folks who call themselves “queer” too.

Further, I find it funny that people try to draw a direct parallel between homophobia and racism, because while the two are related and interlocking, they are not the same thing. What Arsenault did there was use what was perceived to be a personal insult as an excuse to be racist. An excuse to see “nigger” in print next to his name. An excuse to see “chink” in print in justified indignation. Perhaps it was even a chance to showcase his ignorance because he was complicit in continuing the perpetuation of the “fact” that all Asians are Chinese anyway.

» Angelica LeMinh, aka “Chinky” Mcgee

Electric cars and failing batteries

Your film reviewer, Matthew Hays, and the film Who Killed the Electric Car assume that the U.S. and Canada are the sole countries worldwide that have researched or experimented with the technology of the electric car, and that a certain conspiracy was responsible for its demise [“Auto motives,” Aug. 31]. This is arrogance.

There’s nothing experimental about the electric car. They’ve been in motion earlier this century, employing the same principles as the vehicle under scrutiny, the General Motor’s EV-1, introduced in 1996 on a lease basis.

So passionate was our vision of success that GM hopped on board. Indeed, enthusiasm overruled reality and the vehicle essentially failed. Embarrassed, GM relegated them to a scrap heap as described by your reviewer.

Storing large amounts of energy remains a vexing problem, especially for batteries, as they haven’t changed appreciably over the century. They are heavy, difficult to charge and contain limited range—so much for the hardware. But for software applications—iPods, MP3 players, laptop computers etc.—they are superb! Little wonder, then, that we wanted these devices to succeed!

Even though the fuel cell (the battery that recharges on elemental hydrogen) seems promising, hydrogen is difficult and costly to extract—this in spite of its abundance.

Many of life’s basic problems defy solution, see: the common cold, the electric car and divorce.

» Edward Abramic

Pound no progressive

Regarding [“Pound a pacifist?” Letters, Aug. 31]: I couldn’t name an Ezra Pound poem, but I sure knew that he stayed in Italy during WWII, and went on the radio to propagandize for the Fascists. After the war, he was set to go to court for treason in the U.S. for his activities, but was ultimately found unfit for trial. There are other things in his life that don’t seem to make him particularly progressive.

Being anti-war should be about stopping war, period, because of damage to people and society.

I’ve been thinking lately of Jim Bergeron, out of Essex Junction, VT, who, a quarter century ago, went to a nuclear disarmament rally in Europe in uniform, and faced a court-martial for doing so, and a lengthy jail term if he’d been found guilty. His motives were the build-up of nuclear weapons—not taking sides or because he was going to war, which he wasn’t. He had nothing to gain by that act, but lots to lose. When he showed up in late May of 1982, when we were walking to New York City for nuclear disarmament, he’d just been given a discharge “for the good of the service.”

Too often people talk about being against a certain war, and too often it seems watered down where the “anti-war” stance is actually support for one side.

» Michael Black

Shunning the homeless

The Insect award for this week should surely go to the Ville-Marie borough, which, since Sept. 1, has banned the homeless from staying overnight in its public squares.

Conditions in homeless shelters range from bad to deplorable, and they are in many instances unsafe. They are largely funded by the government, but are always operated by charity organizations in order to avoid accountability for living conditions and safety. The fact that many people find it safer or less unpleasant to sleep in a park or public square should be a good clue.

Homelessness is to a large extent a function of unliveable welfare rates and lack of affordable housing. It seems we’ve strayed from the ideal that all Canadians should be entitled to food and shelter as a basic human right, and without any real public or political debate.

I’m concerned by the efforts of various levels of government to shirk their responsibilities while attempting to sweep the results of their neglect, the homeless, out of public view.

» Richard Murray

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