(published – in a horribly censored version – in the Culpeper News, 22 June 00; also published – in what form I don’t know – in the Fairfax Journal in July 2000.)

I grew up in Reston during the years in which it most resembled its founder’s original conception. Reston was a planned community with loads of recreational facilities, walking paths, tunnels and bridges, lakes and local shops, a mix of income levels, and untouched woods and fields. Robert E. Simon, read more

Publications Essay Question 2000
Please write a one- to two-page essay on how you would address the following problem:

The essence of PIRG is political. To put it crudely, bad things are happening in our society because people in power gain by allowing them to happen. In order to reform society, we need to not only expose and document the problems and figure out how to solve them, we also need to fight like hell against the powers that be to make reform possible. To put it another way, we need read more

The cover story in the Washington Post Magazine of Oct. 22, 2000, illustrates the following familiar and troubling points:
1) Legal systems in the United States, and often “counselors,” encourage and do little or nothing to oppose the idea that those suffering due to crimes will feel better if they hate and inflict suffering.

2) This idea is incorrect.

3) The media refuses to direct the conversation of this topic to what social scientists overwhelmingly agree would be the most effective, read more

David Swanson
23 October 2000

To:
Culpeper News
Culpeper Star-Exponent
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Washington Post
American Civil Liberties Union
People For the American Way

In Culpeper County, Virginia, elementary school students are taken out of class during school hours to a bus parked a few feet off school property. The county school system claims to know and to want to know nothing about what the students are taught on the bus. Some students choose not to participate in this activity, read more

In the Fall of 1998, Free Inquiry printed a series of articles under the heading “What Happened to Truth? The Postmodernist Attack on Science, Morality, and Common Sense.” The articles claimed that rejecting the ideas of “objective truth” and “absolute standards” could lead us to “cultural disaster.” I disagree and will try, in the space available, to explain why.

During the last quarter century many people have noticed not just that beliefs read more

Thanksgiving Day 2000
Every morning on the way to work and every evening on the way back home I walk between the east side of the United States Capitol and the west sides of the U.S. Supreme Court and Library of Congress. I’m often struck by the Romanness of the architecture and the Roman ambitions of this country’s past and present “leaders,” despite the differences between life in Washington and Rome.

Lately, the biting cold has left my face feeling like rubber during read more

Published at www.justicedenied.org in March 2001

“Prosecutorial Infallibility” Fosters Unjust System

By Guest Editor David Swanson, JD Team member

The fact that innocent people are convicted of crimes in the United States is now widely known. This is largely due to the magic of DNA testing, and its powers are also widely recognized. But the number of DNA exonerations each year will soon stop increasing and begin decreasing. This is because DNA is more often being used to prevent read more

Apparently a significant number of people are under the impression that events have now occurred that will show Ralph Nader the error of his ways. Without speaking for Nader, I’d like to point out why, as an unrepentant Nader voter, I have not yet been shown the error of mine.

I never had any delusions about George Bush Junior being a satisfactory president. I believed and continue to believe he’ll be the worst we’ve ever had. However, I believe that Albert Gore Junior would read more

First Things
To the Editor:

Stephen Worland

Jan. 1, 2001
In 2001 the mainstream press in the United States will discover a reversal, declaring that “liberals” have suddenly decided they want more power for local and state governments rather than for Washington. Right-wing pundits will describe this as hypocrisy and as a gross distortion of their own alleged preference for anarchy. “Opposing government interference at the federal level does not mean we want it at the local level,” they will tell each other.

This read more