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While
we are on the subject of evil... HISTORICAL
EVIL:
"The Triangle Fire," by Leon Stein with a new introduction
by William Greider. (Cornell University Press, 2001.)
EVIL
IN THE RAG TRADE:
"NO SWEAT: Fashion, Free Trade, and the Rights of Garment
Workers," edited by Andrew Ross. (Verso Press 1997.)
BORDERLINE
EVIL:
"Border Witness," by Maureen Casey and Brian Casey. (The New
York State Labor-Religion Coalition, 2002).
COSMIC
EVIL:
"Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy,"
by Susan Neiman. (Princeton U. Press, 2002.)
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> NO SWEAT NEWS >
NEWS ARCHIVE
"SHIRTS
HEARD AROUND THE WORLD"
By
Harvey Blume
IT has often been noted that Americans regard the T-shirt not only
as proper attire for most any occasion, but also as a vehicle for
most any point of view. It's no surprise, then, that T-shirts have
quickly found their place in the debate over the war in Iraq.
As reported in the New York Times (3/7/03), Stephen F. Downs, a
60-year-old attorney, was recently arrested at Albany's Crossgates
Mall for refusing to remove a T-shirt that read, "Give Peace a Chance."
The mall dropped charges quickly. But next day more than 150 non-mall
rats paid a visit to the site, each sporting an anti-war tee.
In another case of the tee v. authority, 16-year-old Bretton Barber
was sent home from high school in Dearborn Heights, Michigan for
wearing a T-shirt labeling President Bush as a terrorist. In an
interview with NPR's Scott Simon (3/1/03), Barber defended his admittedly
provocatve shirt on grounds that it "emphasized" his anti-war feelings:
"It really sent that message strongly, and that's what I wanted
to do."
The story took a peculiar turn when the school principal called
Barber at home later that day. She told him that the Supreme Court
had affirmed his right to wear a dissenting tee to school decades
ago in a decision pertaining to the Vietnam War (Tinker vs. Des
Moines), but that Barber better not try wearing that shirt to school
again, anyway. Perhaps impressed that his principal at least knew
exactly which law of the land she was violating, Barber is, at last
report, back at school in apolitical garb.
It's not only Americans whose anti-War tees have aroused the censors.
According to the Assoicated Press, when the George Michael's Band
taped a performance for the BBC, the group's cellists wore T-shirt's
saying, "No war, Blair out." BBC officials reacted with the sort
of restraint that England is famous for. Rather than sending cellists
packing (leaving the band with only the odd violin), they slyly
edited the slogans out.
That kind of solution would not have worked when Lena Katina and
Julia Volkova, the two members of Tatu, a rock duo that is the craze
of all the Russias, appeared on David Letterman recently. According
to a Boston Globe report (3/9/03), Tatu's T-shirts told President
Bush exactly where to stick his war. But since the message was in
the Cyrillic alphabet, nobody knew until the show was on air and
Russian viewers called in.
In the end Americans do lose out by not knowing other languages.
Of course, if Russian, Chinese, German and French delegates choose
to turn up at Security Council debates wearing suspicious T-shirts,
illegibility won't be a problem.* Translators will soon enough tell
us what they say.** *
AND, should T-shirt dissidents of any nationality opt for a No Sweat
tee (such as our new LINK TO &/OR DESCRIBE REGIME CHANGE T-SHIRT)
they can be absolutely certain that it is union-made.
** We aspire to be info-central for T-shirt stories. If you know
of -- or are personally repsonsible for any -- do let us know.
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