Letters

LITTLE TO THE MAX

Re: Eddie Little’s “To the Super Max” [November 23–29]. Wow! My boyfriend of three years, having been busted for heroin, has been in custody — at Super Max and, currently, at Twin Towers — since September 13, and almost everything you described I have heard before from him. He got “regulated” at Super Max in the 700 dorm. He gets out October 28, 2002, and I will be printing this story out for him. I know he will read this and remember the hard times he faced in jail. Hopefully this will be a reminder and will be something he can look at so the next time he has some thought that might have him do a repeat performance, he’ll think again.

—R.
Los Angeles

I was excited when I saw Eddie Little’s article. Finally a progressive weekly was addressing the “Super Max” prison issue. Alas, what is defined as Super Max in a county jail system is nothing like the real deal in the state system. Up here in the great Northwest, we have a “Super Max” facility called Pelican Bay State Prison. It is a horrible place where prisoners are kept in 23 hours of solitary confinement, and many of the 1,267 prisoners in this unit have been there for almost a decade. If your readers are truly interested in the reality of the human-rights violations going on up here, they can contact Bar None at P.O. Box 1, Arcata, CA 95518, or call us at (707) 269-0295, or e-mail me at ssradicool@aol.com. We have a long list of prisoners who desire pen pals. They will tell you the true horror stories of the tombs.

—Susan Sexton
Arcata

It’s painfully obvious that Eddie Little is not only a hopeless drug addict, but a hardcore criminal and recidivist. And as anyone who’s read his books and articles knows, it is also painfully obvious that he is America’s Greatest Living Writer. I wondered what had happened when his “Outlaw L.A.” column was taken over by someone else and allowed to go downhill until it disappeared. Now that question has been answered: He is obviously still living an insane life. Please, please, please print anything you can get from Mr. Little before he self-destructs.

—Linda
Los Angeles

THE WHITE STUFF

I am a 30-year Randy Newman fan and active participant in an online newsgroup devoted to him and his work. Erin Aubry Kaplan’s cover story on Randy [“White Man With Attitude,” November 23–29] was one of the best articles/interviews I’ve ever read about/with him, and definitely the best I’ve read in the past three or four years. Excellent work!

—Susan McTigue
Manhattan Beach

GUNS N’ BURKAS

Re: Judith Lewis’ “Out of the Frying Pan” [New World Disorder, November 23–29]. It is good that she is calling attention to the plight of Afghan women. But what about Afghan men? Amnesty International has documented that, since 1991, men have been selectively detained, subjected to forced labor, tortured and killed in Afghanistan. As recently as October, every Afghan family was required to give up one male to bolster the Taliban army for the impending attack. According to one British report, tens of thousands of Afghan men were conscripted in just two weeks.

The horrors visited upon Afghan male civilians began long before the Taliban came into power, and are likely to continue unless people realize that men, too, are worthy of freedom and life.

—Carey Roberts
Derwood, Maryland

In “Out of the Frying Pan,” Judith Lewis claims the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan has “Maoist underpinnings.” While I commend Lewis for balanced coverage of the issue of Afghan women, I would appreciate it if she qualified her claims of RAWA’s political leanings with some evidence. In my work with RAWA for over a year and a half, I have not seen one RAWA statement regarding any leanings toward Maoism, or communism in general. RAWA’s main goal is to struggle for democracy and human rights in Afghanistan. It’s as simple as that. False associations with Maoism cloud the motives of their struggle and misrepresent their ideology.

—Sonali Kolhatkar
Vice President,
Afghan Women’s Mission
Pasadena

THE SAME OLD SONG

Regarding Diamanda Galás’ rant in your November 23–29 issue [“The Deep End”]: Considering that Israel must spend a huge amount of money to defend itself against the numerous countries and millions of people that would like to see it destroyed, it is perfectly reasonable for that nation to seek to reduce its costs by co-producing the Arrow missile-defense system with the U.S. and Turkey. Galás says she’s against genocide, yet seems to be opposed to the Israelis’ doing anything to prevent another holocaust of Jews. Of course, your paper goes along with this, as the Weekly can’t seem to let an issue pass without some Israel bashing.

—Richard Sol
Los Angeles

VERY-LOW BLOW

Re: “No Room at the Ranch” [November 23–29]. I wish to clarify my conversation with Sara Catania regarding the Ahmanson Ranch â project. I made it clear to Catania that my organization does not take positions on individual projects and does not have a position on the Ahmanson Ranch. I did share my personal and professional concerns about “complete communities” that do not include housing for very-low-wage workers. I have shared these directly with representatives from Ahmanson Ranch as well, but in no way should they be construed as official support or opposition.