Resident Unhappy with Tribune Coverage of Demo

This email is reprinted in its entirety.

Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 00:54:00 CDT
From: Isaac Csandl 
Subject: Of potties and protests

Following is a copy of a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune.  I
doubt they will print it, so I'm sharing it with the Internet community.

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To the Editor:

   Regarding the article "Of potties and protests," Section 1, page 11,
Sunday, August 28, 1996 (
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/elect96/conv96/live/0825/0825scen.htm): 

     I am writing to complain of the failure of your reporters Louise
Kiernan and Jean Latz Griffin to convey any of the message of the Stop the
Drug War demonstrators on Saturday, August 24, 1996. 

     Plenty of literature was and still is available, speeches were made,
and any one of us would have explained to your reporters why we there if
they had done their journalistic jobs and asked.  Instead, Tribune
reporters take the easy route and quote someone who is "trying to figure
out what the message is" and, like your reporters, refuses to make the
effort to find out. 

     The Tribune, in not so many words, has admitted that it is blind to
the fact that the Drug War is a total failure and prefers to stay that
way.  Rather than engage in some meaningful discussion about it at an
opportune moment like the Democratic National Convention, the Tribune
prefers to resort to toilet humor. 

     While the Tribune quaintly dodges a pertinent issue and mocks
activism by making base jokes about human beings having to go pee-pee,
thousands of lives are being destroyed because our elected officials would
rather punish American citizens than help them. 


          Sincerely,

          Isaac Csandl
          meniscus@wwa.com