Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this article.

I am deeply concerned that parents are not having their children immunized.

Polio is ONE example of a disease whose devastating effects have been significantly ameliorated by vaccine.

I was a grade schooler when the vaccine was finally administered, and had already seen two classmates succumb to the disease.

I think it's part of the Know Nothing movement in America...

anti-flouride..anti immunization.......marijuana is not a drug, etc.

Susan

Sorry, Mr. Greenwald, but every time I try to post about prostitution, the letters are closed! You cite the article quoted below at the end of the article about right wing thinking in the past week. I thoroughly enjoy and respect your work, yet am very disappointed about your response to prostitution.

"But why would a rich, powerful and handsome man pay for extra-marital sex? Aren’t there tons of women waiting to throw themselves at him for free? Yes, there are. But those women always want something: they want attention, intimacy and romance. They want to enjoy the high of sleeping with a powerful man. Escorts don’t want or care about any of those things. At least one of the articles about the 22 year-old escort who slept with Spitzer implied that she didn’t even know who he was. Based on my experience, I think it’s highly unlikely that she knew or cared. She was in it for the money, and she had as much to hide as he did.

One high-powered New York attorney explained it to me like this: “Of course I love my wife. Escorts have nothing to do with that. She comes to my hotel room and I don’t have to know her name, because they all use fake names like Amber and Kimberly. I don’t have to worry about how she feels or what she wants. It’s a simple exchange: I give her a thousand bucks, we have a good time for a couple of hours, she goes away and we never have to see each other again.”

A thousand dollars is nothing for these men. Money has little value; because no matter how hard they try they will never be able to spend their hundreds of millions. And if you are about to say that for a thousand bucks those girls must supply the best sex in history, then you really do not understand this world. Because it is not about sex; it is about power. And the simple act of ordering up an anonymously pretty 22 year-old girl to do your bidding in the salubrious confines of a luxury hotel suite is an act of power."

This article says it all, and it justifies MY points, not Mr. Greenwald's.

I have nothing against women who "choose" to be sex workers because they'd like to make a lot of money. I have questions about whether it's really a free "choice."

But the fact is, would you want your daughter -- or son -- to become a sex worker? I certainly would not.

I do know that most women who decide to be sex workers have been sexually abused as children, or have decided to do so because of poverty, compounded by racism, immigration oppression, colonialism, addiction etc. I also know that there is an international trafficking of women and girls (and boys) that sells women into sexual slavery. I also know that men/pimps control women and take their money through use of coercion, violence and drugs...

Prostitution is about men getting serviced. Kind of like filling up the gas tank. Men don't have to be pleasant, or think about their partner's gratification or have a "relationship". There are no obligations about intimacy. It's a laughable joke that they would EVER think about the prostitute's sexual pleasure. It's kind of like getting a massage, or an enema....except that you can pretend for a while that the other person really enjoys servicing you.

It's also about men's consumption of women. It's about men's entitlement to the bodies and services of girls and women.

Most of the conversation that I hear seems focused on women's experience -- particularly women's right to exercise her sexaul liberated Self by performing "sex work." I hear painful little conversation about men's experiences of

using women (or other men) in these ways and what it is about men's use of women (and men) in these ways that promotes kindness, care, compassion, communication -- in short, that promotes of ethic of sexual justice.

I absolutely do not believe that this is what all men want. I think that's anti-male. I do believe that some men want to love and make love with equals who love them, and want to give sexual pleasure as well as receive it. I reject the idea that all men want prostitutes. I know many men who think that buying sex means you are not attractive enough to get it for free.

I'm sure it could be a right wing conspiracy that exposed the new york governor. I'm sure he was doing good work.

But I have no respect for him.

Why does he -- and all the other men who screw up -- ASK their wives to stand beside them and lend them legitimacy? WHY do MOST people blame the wife? Why don't they blame the HUSBAND who SHOULD be saying "Gosh, I am the one who totally screwed up. I don't want to put you through a public ordeal. Stay home. I don't want you to suffer because of my mistakes."

This is NOT about adultery. I don't care if a public figure is cheating on their spouse.

I DO care (as in Rudy Guiliani) if one partner is abusing or assaulting the other.

I AM disgusted about men's justification of pornography, prostitution and trafficking - of women and children. Yes, they are all connected. Mr. Greenwald, you really are missing the boat on this one.

Susan McGee

Eureka, CA