This is in response to Darrel Rizzo’s letter of March 5. Ahh—where shall I start? I shall skip grammar given my own imperfections along those lines and start with a rather curious statement, the purpose of which confuses me. “We possess the ability to literally almost feed the entire planet (but who knows how long if those curious weather patterns and ozone layer holes continue to deplete America’s water table.)”

While this letter seems to be a “bash the government” letter, I am not sure how this sentence fits in. Is he bashing the environmentalists? Droughts and overpopulation have most definitely dropped water tables in some parts of the country, but droughts are hardly a “curious weather pattern.” Furthermore, not only is there no hole in the ozone layer above the United States, I can’t imagine how more ultraviolet light will affect water tables (though extra UV will cause damage to crops). Perhaps this is an example of Darrel’s fine sarcastic wit that goes over my head.

He goes on to complain that Japan has become a major industrial power, taking away our markets and using us as a market. Well, had the American auto industry noticed that the VW Bug sold extremely well in the 60s and 70s or that OPEC had hiked prices, they might have started designing and building quality low gas mileage cars instead of fighting tooth and nail against mileage requirements and had U.S. steel companies kept their plants modern.

As for how the question “How large would Japanese corporations be if they only sold to their own internal market,” the same question could be raised about U.S. corporations. A number of our government’s “interventions” in Central and South America were heavily influenced by the interests of U.S. corporations.

The narrow selection of politicians he complains about is due in large part to participation in primaries that I believe is below 40 percent.

A minor correction I would like to make is that the U.S. is not lending Israel 10 billion dollars; if Israel stops adding settlements in the occupied territories, the U.S. will guarantee 10 billion dollars worth of loans—a major difference. Whether we should support Israel and if so, under what conditions and how, are all questions that require a whole other letter just to summarize.

Before we start putting “economic efficiency” before everything else, I suggest we remember that Mussolini was well-known for making the trains run on time.

PC in general and Darrel’s arguments about it in specific would each take a letter, so I will finish by pointing out that the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, says that the people may, not “are obligated,” under serious circumstances change their government.

Robert Morphis

System Manager

Physics department