Views in brief

October 1, 2014

A desperate act at UPS

IN RESPONSE to "Why isn't UPS on trial?": Your article is right on point. I have known Mr. Tesney for nearly 15 years. He was one of the most gentle, kindest people I have ever known. He had/has a beautiful family and a wife and two daughters that he loves dearly. He was by no means a "mad man."

For as long as I have known him, he has complained of being harassed and bullied at work. This has been going on for many years.

Being the predominant bread winner for his family and losing his livelihood after 23 years with the company, coupled with no sleep for weeks and the stress of trying to figure out where he is going to be able to earn a comparable living, and the culmination of being treated horribly for all these years resulted in him apparently snapping and "going postal."

Again, I know these people more than just casually...never in a million years would I have predicted this could happen at the hands of Mr. Tesney. It saddens me that he no doubt felt so much turmoil and desperation inside that it led to three people's deaths (his own among them). When pushed to the brink, none of us can predict how we will react.

Image from SocialistWorker.org

I am sorry for the victims' families for their losses. I feel bad for Mrs. Tesney and her two beautiful daughters, who are also going to have to live with this horror and tragedy perpetrated by someone who was nothing but loving and kind to them.
Allison Wildman, Murfreesboro, Tenn.

UPS pushed her out

IN RESPONSE to "Why isn't UPS on trial?": My girlfriend quit there a year ago after eight years as a pre-loader. She couldn't take the abuse anymore. Everything you said is true. She was in her 50s and a woman making "too much" in wages, benefits and vacation time. They wanted her gone.
Tim Flynn, Decorah, Iowa

Who's cashing in at UW?

IN RESPONSE to "Custodians crank up the heat": Some perspective: According to the University of Washington's payroll/personnel salary stratification reports, Vice President for Human Resources Mindy Kornberg's gross salary was $259,884 in 2008 and $329,508 in 2013--an increase of 26.8 percent. The percentage increase for the average classified grunt was barely over 2 percent.
J.B. Stack, Seattle

Readers’ Views

SocialistWorker.org welcomes our readers' contributions to discussion and debate about articles we've published and questions facing the left. Opinions expressed in these contributions don't necessarily reflect those of SW.

Is Michfest changing?

IN RESPONSE to "Michfest is dying from bigotry": A critically important question about the whole Michigan Women's Music Festival (Michfest) controversy is whether in fact Michfest does now include trans womyn even while keeping its "focus" on "womyn born womyn" or WBF.

An August 18 Michfest statement includes this passage which rather clearly says that yes, trans womyn (and also trans men) are not only tolerated but indeed welcome as legitimate participants. The full context may be helpful:

Michfest is widely known as a predominantly lesbian community. This does not mean that heterosexual women, bisexual women, or those who do not share this identity are not present or welcome. But for a week, we collectively experience a lesbian-centered world; we experience what it feels like to be in a community defined by lesbian culture.

There are trans womyn and trans men who attend and work at the Festival who participate in the Michfest community in this same spirit--as supporters of, rather than detractors from, our female-focused culture.

Reading the document, titled "We Have a Few Demands of Our Own," I arrive at the interpretation that the traditional "womyn born womyn" or WBW-only intention has now been reinterpreted to mean that Michfest remains a WBW-owned and WBW-focused space--but not a "WBW-only" space. It seems to be something like a relationship between WBW, and especially WBW lesbians, being owners, and trans womyn and trans men being welcomed as guests who support, but do not define the "focus" or "centering" of the Fest.

The biggest question this statement raises is whether members of the Michfest community who strongly support a WBW-only space will recognize that trans womyn are now welcome. For many, the "intention" seems a kind of proof text requiring some curious readings of the August 18 statement so that trans womyn are still "gatecrashers," "boundary violators," or even like male rapists. The "massive resistance" to Brown v. Board of Education provides a grim but maybe not so implausible analogy.

If the August 18 statement is implemented and this resistance does not generate new and unproductive conflict, then Lisa Vogel's acknowledgement that the removal of trans woman Nancy Jean Burkholder in 1991 was "wrong" could be a giant step toward truth and reconciliation.

This is a conflict that really goes back to the mid-1970s when there was very intense and destructive conflict over the role of transsexual lesbian feminists in Second Wave communities. Finally healing this division would be a great achievement for Michfest, the lesbian community and feminism generally.
Margo Schulter, from the Internet

Not just a Washington problem

IN RESPONSE to "Native voices won't be bullied": Perhaps it's best to focus on one racist team name at a time, but I find myself wondering when we'll begin to talk in earnest about the Atlanta Braves. Each and every time I find myself up against a televised Braves game in bars or restaurants and witness the horrific "tomahawk chop," I want to die from shame and embarrassment on behalf of the human race. This horrific institutionalized racism really has to go.
Peter Spitzform, Essex Junction, Vt.