oan.

very good friend of this column down in North Bend,

, Oregon sends us scads of journals, tear-sheets, books,

etc. He has been doing it for a long time now. Especially those

papers, journals and books published by groups of U.S.

Vietnam war veterans. Just recently he sent us two volumes of

poems by these Vietnam veterans, entitled Winning Hearts and
Minds and Where is Vietnam?

These anthologies, and particularly Winning Hearts and
Minds illustrate better than any prose ever did, just what the
U.S. Vietnam genocidal aggression has done to the American
conscience, to say nothing of the evil, horror, destruction and
death it has inflicted upon the people of Vietnam. .

The many scores of GI’s who turned to poetry in Winning
Hearts and Minds as well as in numerous other journals and
publications have little in common with other war-time poets
as we know them, as for instance Col. John McCrea of World
War I, whose deathless poem In Flanders Fields we all
remember.

These poems of American GI’s are not a ‘‘glorification’’ of

war ‘‘heroes’’ or warmongers, but a hatred of war and all that -

it entails, a hatred deep as the deepest recesses of their being.

Unspoken horrors, contempt, disillusionment, disgust,
satire, even a hardened-by-usage unconcern for the countless
thousands of green plastic bags for shipping what is left of their
GI “‘buddies’’ back home, or the broken and shattered bodies of
the ‘‘enemy’’. Something great and good, perhaps the great
“‘spirit’’ that was once America has been destroyed in this
U.S. warhawk destruction of its youth, now finding its voice, if
not its lost youth, in the power and beauty of a poem.

Ah yes, the ‘‘regimental parson’’ —

. . . Prays for the souls of the enemy

On Sunday mornings

And earns flight pay as a helicopter door gunner

During the rest of the week. (Larry Rottman)

Then there are the Generals of course, and what would war
be if it couldn’t produce Generals who see to it that,

“Paper orders passed down and executed ;

Straggling back in plum-colored rags,

One-legged, in slings, on stretchers,

In green plastic bags,

With stubbled faces

And gaunt eyes hung in sockets;

Returned to paper

For some general to read about

And pin a medal to. (W.D. Ehrhart)

And the green plastic bags, all neatly stacked in truck
loads;

“To be carted home. . .

A forest has been felled. . . again,

Scrap lumber torn from hardwood trees. . .

The saplings of democracy lie neatly stacked

Awaiting shipment, invoices already sent —

To be signed for and received by wringing hands—

Cordwood warped and drying

For the fires of election speeches

Yet tocome. . .”’ (Landon Thorne) :

Nothing, but nothing is sacred, youth, culture, life, all are
expendable in the U.S. murder of Vietnam;

- «The old Cham temple of Thap Ba,

The locals say it is a thousand years old,

Older than this stilted Anglo-Saxon language I use

Older they say than the use of

Bullets, ballots and the printing press,

Older than the airplane and the bomb, older than napalm,—

Was hit yesterday by a twenty year-old

Helicopter pilot, fresh from the States,

Who found it more ecstatic than the firing range

For testing his guns’’.

A writer in the New York Times (May 14/72) said of
Winning Hearts and Minds, — ‘‘If the impact of all these poems
does not make you weep, then by Jesus Christ you are not
human and ought to destroy your social security card.”

“J wonder if the President ever takes time to weep?’’ asks
V-V poet Julian Knaster.

FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL NEEDS

Contact:.

GLOBE TOURS

2679 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C.

253-1221 254-2313

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1972—PAGE 2

The slate chosen by the Com-
mittee of Progressive Electors
(COPE) to contest the civic elec-
tion this fall is representative
of a wide cross-section of Van-
couver citizens. For alder-
manic, school board and parks
board candidatures some 160
persons who attended the meet-
ing in the Ironworkers hall
-chose several women, a number
of trade unionists, young
persons, and professionals.

In the draft outline of a Pro-
gram for Vancouver, COPE
stresses ‘‘that the people of Van-
couver need, deserve and
demand a completely new
approach by City Council to the
growth and development of our
city.’ The program urges an
overall 20 Year Plan for the
city’s growth and _beautifica-
tion.

Chosen to contest the alder-
manic seats were: Ald. Harry
Rankin, Bruce Yorke, an
economist; Bill Link, business
agent for the ATU; Les Copan, a
longshoreman,; Margaret
Chunn, office manager; James
Cork, a purchasing agent;
Jacques Khouri, «in public
information; Sam Vint, a
stationary engineer, Walter
Kish, an electrician, and Sally
Jackson, community planner.

For school board, COPE mem-
bers nominated Angie Dennis,
teacher, who sparked the work
of the Fred Quilt Committee,
Betty Greenwell, vice-president
of the Vancouver Parent-
Teacher Council; Dorothy Mor-
rison, a retired school teacher
who is active in the peace move-
ment, Irene Foulkes, a long-time
worker for peace, and Ruth
Smith, a secretary.

Parks Board candidates in-
clude Cliff- Worthington,
business agent for Local 452 of
the Carpenters Union; Rod
Marining, circulation man-
ager; Tommy Hawken, well-
known folk singer; Ray Dusang,
a truck driver active in com-

oo i

COPE names its candidates,
adopts program for Vancouver |

munity affairs; Sid Shelton,
pharmacist; Dusty Greenwell,
electrician; and Helen O’-
Shaughnessy, organizer for the
Fishermen’s union.

Alderman Rankin told the

’ audience that if his personal feel-

ings were the only con-
sideration, he would welcome
the idea of entering the race for
the mayor’s chair.

‘‘However’’, he said, “‘I am
persuaded that if there werea
gang-up on the right, the odds
against me would be heavy, espe-
cially in view of the decision of
the Area Council of the NDP to
split the vote of the reform
forces.”

He said new faces don’t neces-
sarily mean new policies; who
is elected this year will deter-
mine the direction of Van-
couver’s development for many
years to come, and the election
of a COPE majority could mean
new directions aimed at im-
proving the quality of life in Van-

couver.

COPE PROGRAM

The Master Growth Plan, as
endorsed by COPE members re-
commends the following:

e Encourage establishment of
pollution-free secondary and
manufacturing industries to
process B.C.’s_ natural  re-
sources.

e Cooperation with the Greater
Vancouver Regional Board to
build a public transit system in
the Lower Mainland which
should include greatly expanded
bus system, as well as the most
modern forms of rapid transit.

e Removal of education tax
from owner-occupied homes.
Reduce taxes on homes and
small business by ending the
underassessment of big com-
mercial and industrial pro-

perties and replace the 8.5

percent business tax with a gra-
duated business tax based on
ability to pay. :

e Press for major revisions of

the provincial Landlord and
Tenant Act.
e Introduce a ward system in the
city.
e A new approach to parks and
recreation which will em
phasize participation of people
of all ages in sports and recre@
tion. :
e A new approach to education
that will equip students with te
ability to cope with rapidly
changing world and tech
nological advance. ‘
More container and cargo facll

ities in the port of Vancouver ® -

increase trade and jobs.

e Freeze all development of
False Creek and Fairview
Slopes until firm guidelines
have been adopted guaranteeiié
that major development will Dé

in the direction of moderate

priced housing. City mus
develop all city-owned Jands
itself; adequate provision fo!
parks and recreation and lo
cost housing for senior citizens:
e Draw up strict laws governing
air, water and noise pollution.

|

e A greatly expanded program |

to build public low rental hous
ing under federal and provincia
regulations. :

e Public control over the policé
force by a council-appointe

Police ‘Commission, a? im 7

Citizen’s Review Board

investigate citizen complaints» |

~=WE HAVE Too MANY PEOPLE:

Youn supyey Shows exenty of HSM

‘Clean up unfit housing’—Rankin |

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Many of the rooming houses in
Vancouver’s Skid Road area are
a disgrace and completely unfit
for human habitation. They’re
dirty and over-crowded, they’re
crawling with bed bugs and
cockroaches, often are without
running hot water, the lighting is
often poor, the electrical wiring
unsafe and they’re death traps in
case of fire. The money spent on
upkeep on many of these places
is nil. They are a menace to the
health of the tenants.

And no one should go away
with the idea that rents in these
flop houses are low. They are
high and if you take into
consideration the quality of the
accommodation (or rather the
lack of it) then the rents cannot
be considered as anything other
than exorbitant.

City health laws are being
broken day in and day out by the
owners of these rooming houses.
And the owners aren't poor,
little, old widows trying to make
ends meet— in many cases these
buildings are owned by some of
the wealthiest and most
“‘respect- able’’ people in town.

I’ve protested these condi-
tions many times both in and out

of Council. Some action has been
taken but it has been too little
and too slow and hasn’t made
any appreciable difference in
the over-all situation.

In 1963, 1965 and 1967 there was
only one prosecution each year.
(In 1964 and 1966 there were
none.) In 1968 there were 16, in
1969 only 2, in 1970 it went up to
10 and in 1971 there were 11. Up
to the end of August of this year,
there were 15.

In all this time, only 0M
person was sent to prison, SO™
received suspended sentences:
were fined, and 5 rooming hous® —

. were declared unfit. But wee i”
shocking about the convict? |

is the low fines. From 19 fe
1970 the lowest fine was $9 an a
the highest $100, with an averae

of $30. In 1971 there was one f=
— $125. This year the fines haves
gone up ranging from $10 to
with the average being $110.

See HOUSING, pg. 11 |

You Are Invited To Attend

BSth ANNIVERSARY OF U.S.S.R.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5th - 2:00 PM

at the YUGOSLAV HALL,
2786 East Hastings St.

Guest Speaker, Film on U.S.S.R. Development
and Other Entertainment

Followed by Light Refreshments
Ausp: Canada-U.S.S.R. Friendship Society

$300: ,