Like Ray Ensher, I have been a lifelong Democrat, longtime member of the Fresno Democratic Women's Club, active campaigner for candidates. However, I am tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. I can no longer overlook the evils that the Democratic candidates staunchly support. I have written and called Clinton, Feinstein, Boxer and Dooley on these issues and get no responses or insipid justifications for them. The ten years of sanctions against the Iraqi people and the almost daily bombing. $1 billion to beef up the military forces of Colombia who are conducting a vicious civil war against their own people, instead of putting money towards really combating drug addiction. Continued funding of the Star Wars anti-missile defense system which experts say is unworkable and has in fact proven so, and which will destabilize the nuclear non proliferation treaties and arms reduction treaties already in place. Support of NATO, NAFTA, WTO, IMF and all those other bad initials.

Support gun control? Hah! As long as we are the biggest exporter of weapons and weapons systems in the world, how insignificant are our efforts to put gun locks on handguns. Our economy is controlled by the weapons manufacturers. Will Al Gore or Diane Feinstein speak to that? It is time for somebody to raise the possibility of real changes. A lot of people seem ready for that--witness what has already taken place in Seattle and Washington DC, and there will be plenty of action at the Democratic and Republican conventions. I will happily vote for Ralph Nader and Medea Benjamin this time around.

Ellie Bluestein

Re: Rych Withers comments regarding the Fresno Free College Foundation (FFCF) Board and the "Crisis at KFCF;" methinks he protests too much. His response to the crisis is full of half-truths and distortions. The FFCF Board majority continue to use my comments from the 1999 Annual Banquet as their rallying point. They continue to distort my comments, out of context, without reference to the issue I was addressing.

During the Annual Banquet last year, I was called by then-president Doug Noll to host the event in his absence. On my arrival to banquet, Rych, Mark Hernandez, Debra Spears and others were caught placing inflammatory leaflets on each place-setting, trumpeting false information about the (then) FFCF board majority's (untrue) desire to end KPFA broadcasting and eliminate programs like those of Pacifica's Amy Goodman, the evening's guest speaker. Though Rych denied any involvement in undermining the board at the banquet, eyewitnesses identified him as a perpetrator. This was a "breach of trust," as a board member, that warranted his removal from the FFCF board.

In my opening remarks at the banquet, I reported that President Noll had indicated to me, by E-mail, that it was his goal to achieve up to 65% local programming (in the event that KPFA was removed from the air, or sold by Pacifica). The current board majority used my comments, out of context, to unseat me as vice-president of the FFCF board after 9 years of service. Incidentally, Rych and his sycophants conducted a coup d'etat, at the annual meeting by mustering proxy votes of their friends and overthrowing a progressive board that threatened to remove Rych for his actions. Their unparalleled and undemocratic actions led to Doug Noll removing his name from consideration as president.

I would appreciate Rych Withers, and those of his ilk, cease to quote me out of context for their inflammatory purposes of distorting the mission of the Community Radio Coalition. That mission is a community radio station free of private ownership, a board of directors free of conflicts of interest and reprehensible breaches of public faith and trust.

Thank You.

Stephen Barile

Just wanted to say that it is good to have a reliable source to look to for info about Fresno. It makes me happy when I read your newsletter each month and see what is going on in Fresno and how stuff is starting to stir a little down there. CLA helps me feel ok with going back to Fresno since I know that there is a wonderful base of committed activists in the community just waiting to explode...or blossom, whatever visual you may choose. I wasn't sure whether you guys would cover the Democratic Convention stuff, in terms of getting the word, but of course you did...and I had heard about the Community Radio stuff a little before and now I get to read about it too. It heartens me to see what you guys are a part of at CLA, and Mike and Pam (along with Yolanda, Gloria, and various others) have inspired me in many ways and influenced my life in ways I may not fully recognize. Thanks for the ongoing influence and inspiration...thanks to my roots and the influence I had from my elders in the movement back home (a la Fresno), I am now working with PCUN this summer and facilitating an outreach effort to California college students to support farmworkers in their quest for justice in the fields. Stuff is really coming along, and it is beautiful to work with a union that is so full of spirit, and pays a lot of attention to the little things that most unions don't. The only saddening thing is that a couple unions up here, which shall remain nameless, are not so supportive (you can guess the 2, yes they relate to the fields and food, and they are not a farmworker union) of PCUN. Justice is on our side though and I am confident that elements with in these unions will lose out and justice will reign...one day, hopefully soon.

paz y justicia

Viva CLA!!

Viva la Causa!! -

Chuck McNally