LETTERS to the Editor.

to the Editor

Chomsky Strikes a Chord Noam Chomsky graciously acknowledged in his interview (David Barsamian, September issue) that the call to action on Iraq which he, Ed Herman, Edward Said, and Howard Zinn issued earlier this year was written by me. His point that political work is usually done in groups--and that many of the people who do the work are not visible--is well taken.

So it is important for me to acknowledge that I did not create that call to action alone. The statement was a collaborative effort with Rahul Mahajan and Romi Mahajan. The three of us work on the Iraq sanctions issue and other anti-war and progressive projects in Austin, Texas.

As is the case in real collaborative efforts, I no longer remember who came up with the idea, but because I handled the organizing of the signers and the distribution, Chomsky knew my name but not those of the others.

I write this not only to honor the work of these two friends and colleagues, but to acknowledge that all the people we work with in Austin were, in some sense, part of the project. Contributions to political movements come in many forms, all of which should be honored if we are to be effective.

Robert Jensen University of Texas, Department o f Journalism Austin, Texas The estimable Noam Chomy sky is entitled to go to a pro basketball game with his grandson, maybe even two or three pro games every fifty years, but your fine interview with him still understates the problem of spectator sports. Professional and semi-pro sports not only "distract people from paying attention to politics," as Chomsky has argued, but also serve pernicious ends.

People identify with sports teams as "their" teams, even though they have no control over them. Identification without influence can be applied easily and dangerously to one's city, country, government.

And for kids today, sports are no longer about playing games on their own, organizing their own teams, and learning important lessons in how to do for themselves as citizens. Instead, kids play on teams coached by adults, where they learn obedience and how to be good little apparatchiks in a bureaucracy.

Lastly, professional sports offer hope for ghetto kids--but a hope that will inevitably fail for the great majority of them.

Richard D. Erlich

Oxford, Ohio

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