Helen Colley
Manchester, England  
 
More on cartoon controversy
While I agree that the Danish cartoons are offensive to Muslims, calls for censorship from any quarter should be opposed. I had a personal experience with censorship right here in the U.S. while in prison.

The prison administration and guards believe it is their right to control what inmates read. They sometimes have a list of banned publications, but most often a guard can arbitrarily confiscate whatever they choose. The way it usually works is that an article by Dr. King or Nelson Mandela is censored or stolen from an inmate while vile racist tracts seem to be in wide circulation.

I agree with your response to another reader that restrictions on free speech always end up being used against working people and oppressed nationalities. I think the way to fight hate speech is with more speech. A case in point is the recent antiracist mobilizations against the Ku Klux Kowards in Baltimore.

R.B.
Baltimore, Maryland  
 
Miners killed in Colombia
On March 8 a student was killed by the cops during a protest at the National University here in Bogotá. Since then, the students have been organizing protests, several major streets have been closed, and classes cancelled.

Thank you so much for the reporting on the Sago Mine disaster and the miners in Mexico, which has been excellent.

There was an explosion in a coal mine near Bogotá in February, and four miners were killed. According to the newspapers, the explosion happened because of gases that had built up while the mine was closed during the holidays. The mine owners, of course, did not take the proper safety measures and the miners paid with their lives.

Nicole Sarmiento
Bogotá, Colombia  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home