BOYCOTT THE THRUWAY

I am writing in reference to the impending toll hikes by the NYS Thruway Authority. I cannot believe the NYSTA is proposing a 10 percent increase over the next two years. While they claim this increase is due to rising gas prices, it seems coincidental that as soon as we win the fight in Western New York to get the toll barriers on the I-190 taken down, we are facing another toll hike. The tolls were recently increased on the I-90 without an environmental impact statement, and even though that was illegal, here we are again.

In the face of rising gas costs, a slowing economy and a lagging real estate market, how much are we supposed to take? It seems that the NYSTA is simply playing pile-on, but this new increase may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. First of all this increase is just bad business. The NYSTA is complaining of lagging revenue because of high gas prices. Their solution to a less than two percent loss of revenue is a 10 percent hike, some one explain this to me please. Also if higher gas prices are keeping people off of toll roads, what do they think is going to happen with high gas prices and even higher tolls?

So here is what I propose, seeing as how the holiday season is fast appoaching, I am urging all New Yorkers who can to boycott the NYS thruway. This is a fairly easy task. Simply go online to mapquest.com and map out your normal routes minus toll roads. If we all avoid the thruway whenever possible, or simply get off a few stops sooner, the thruway authority will be forced to negotiate and submit to a true audit. New Yorkers are overworked, underpaid and overtaxed, the last thing we need is one more “authority” picking our pockets. Thank you for your time.

Michael Potter

Buffalo

GET OVER YOURSELVES

Before writing an infotaining article about gifting, Geoff Kelly felt the need to register his discomfort and disdain with consumerism, a family holiday ritual and the Neiman Marcus catalog (“The Give-In Season,” Artvoice v6n46). When so strenuously demonstrating their intellectual and moral superiority to all around them, the left provide their own caricatures.

In other words, get over yourselves, muffinheads.

Dan Hoffman

THE CASE FOR SOCIALISM

America is moving toward neofascism—the intermingling of the corporate structure with our government. Harold Laski, the distinguished British socialist, predicted this many years ago in The American Democracy. Unlike Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Laski’s book is rarely quoted because it is extremely critical of American capitalism and the preeminent role of the businessman in our society.

Since its inception America has been a refuge for the world’s oppressed seeking religious freedom and economic opportunity. However, this opportunity has been middle-class in nature and limited by the constraints of American capitalism. The typical American believes in a measure of upward mobility and the ruling class uses this belief to quell the emergence of a class-conscious, working-class movement for progressive social change. As Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution, has said, every four years the American workers get to choose which group of capitalists will oppress them.

Despite socialist leaders like Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, socialism, although the answer to our problems, has never been a major force in American politics. That is because most Americans are extremely individualistic and capitalistic. Sooner or later this metality must change if American democracy is to survive. Until then, our society will become even sicker. Only democratic socialism can transform America into a just and humane civilization.

David Slive

Buffalo

I HAVE A DREAM, TOO

It is a constant source of irony, when I watch a news item about Chinese factories, to realize that most of the workers there could not pay for the toys or clothing that they manufacture. I understand that most have a guaranteed job. The salaries of most American workers here and in China are higher than those of the Chinese, but as we have learned from recent auto industry reports many American workers are at risk of losing their jobs. Who is better off?

Dr. Niman claims he had a dream last night (“Getting a Grip,” Artvoice v6n47). So did I! I don’t know if his was genuine or if he invented it for his column, but mine was genuine. The content was taken from Artvoice, specifically its unique layout. Most American papers have a conventional layout, usually working some sort of grid. But Artvoice’s layout takes off in all directions at once. This is what my dreamspinner fastened on me for as long as it lasted. (I don’t know whether dreams play out in real time.) In any event I enjoyed my personal kaleidoscope.

Moral of the story? There is none, except the suggestion that if a billion Chinese have the same dream, dreaming perhaps of liberties we take for granted, we’d better know how to deal with them, not through force of arms but with sensitive tools of diplomacy.

Kenneth J. Rummenie

East Aurora