PCEI and watermelons

["Aaron C. Ament" <acament@hotmail.com>]

This is a responce to to a letter to the editor that appeared in last weeks 
Daily News.
Howard,
     I'm not sure why PCEI went to Cuba.  I doubt it was; as you put it, "to 
learn how to farm".  I think it is more likely they went to Cuba to explore 
different ways to farm.  Here on the Palouse we use huge eight-wheeled 
tractors, self-leveling combines and a vast array of chemical fertilizers, 
insecticides and herbicides to help us wrest nourishment from the Earth.  
Ireally don't know how they farm in Cuba, but I imagine farming there is 
much different than it is here.  Different.  Not superior.  Not inferior.  
Different.  As is almost always the case, I am sure an exchange of ideas 
would benifit both parties.
     Unlike you, Howard, I am not impressed when I see scenes from life in 
Cuba.  I am  saddened.  I am saddened to see human beings punished by the 
United States.  Their sin?  The man who led the fight against a corrupt 
dictator, embraced communism.  Our governments responce to that embrace?  
Vendetta.  Goliath vs. David.  We hold out a helping hand to Red China.  
Cuba we try to crush.  We sent food to the totalitarian communists of the 
Soviet Union.  Cuba we bully.  When I see the face of Cuba, I see sadness 
and missed opportunities.
     Howard, I am not sure what you mean when you call PCEI a "watermelon 
organization".  Do you believe PCEI is using a false concern for our 
environment to mask its agenda to replace our government with totalitarian 
communism?  Do you believe that is the goal of all environmental groups?  Is 
concern for our environment a communist plot?  Are you saying, Howard, that 
the release of poisons into our air, water and soil is a myth, a Trojan 
Horse carrying Cuban communism into the Palouse?  Or, do you mean something 
else when you call PCEI a "watermelon organization"?  Does PCEI's concern 
for the health of our Palouse encompass all its endeavors, as the green rind 
of the watermelon surrounds its fruit?  Should we focus solely on the red 
fruit(as you seem to), which offers emmediate sustenance, or do we look also 
to the rind which we return to the soil to provide nutrients for the seeds 
we did not throw away, but carefully set aside?
                       Aaron C. Ament

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