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Letters to the Editor: Check the U.S. Constitution, to see it's at Just who is the "majority" in America? It's hard to tell. We won't find out from a media whose major research effort is to leaf through the daily "news releases" emanating from "official" Washington. Take the "preemptive war" strategy of Mr. Bush and friends. Do a majority support, or oppose? It depends on who's talking. One thing we know, however, is that those multitudes who expressed their opposition have been identified by Mr. Bush as a "focus group," not to be heeded. Are we to conclude then that those who support him represent the "democratic" choice? The term "focus group" held no influence with our president when his national energy policy was formulated by a very narrowly representative group of power brokers. Those guys don't even want us to know who they are. Some could end up in jail. With apologies to ducks, if it looks like a focus group, acts like one, and talks like one - it's no duck. When it comes to "democracy" around the world, England, Italy, Spain have done the "democratic" thing and ignored the overwhelming opposition of their people to support Mr. Bush - another focus group? Many other countries, that never were representative democracies anyway, have done the "democratic" thing, their citizens be damned! Of course, a few American handouts don't hurt. Isn't it sad when something in the neighborhood of $30 billion won't buy an ally? Makes you want to weep. All this confusion makes me want to look at the U.S. Constitution again- just to see where I'm at! Edward Colbert, Ashland The correct view of the Bush tax cut, and the lies Your letter writer ("Bullish on Bush's plan") must know that one may easily drown in water that "averages" one foot in depth. So it is with tax cuts expressed as an average. Bush's new proposed giveaway to the very rich will provide nothing, nada, zilch, to 30 percent of American households, and 50 percent will get a tax cut of less than $100. Nationally, 8 out of 10 taxpayers will receive much less than $1,083.(Consult www.ocpp. org and www.ctj. org.) The "average" benefit is skewed by the very large cuts going to affluent households. About 510,000 Oregon households will receive nothing from the Bush "cut" and the "typical" taxpayer nationwide will see a cut of $289. When it comes to proposed tax cuts or planned military muggings of tenth-rate third-world countries, everything the Bush administration says must be considered false until proven true. On every other issue, it is safe to assume they are lying. Gerald Cavanaugh, Ashland Guest forum: Gender, violence and war By Rosemary Dunn Dalton Ashland Feminist psychologists Carol Gilligan and Jean Baker-Miller discuss differences in men and women. They define patriarchy as rule of the father, or male control over women and children, and as a system that places constraints on both women and men. The Wellesley Stone Center for Women premises that women tend to make moral and personal decisions from a self-in-relation orientation. It is often generalized, then, that women see war as devastating to families and thus more readily look for alternatives to violence. At the forefront of feminist activity in the United States anti-violence movement of over 25 years have been advocates working to end domestic violence. We bear in mind that the U.S. is one of only two countries (the other being Afghanistan) that has failed to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the only country not to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Presently, Republican leadership is launching the next assault on a woman's right to control her own body via legislation attacking abortion rights. Tactics that disregard the civil rights of women and children in a war parallel a never-ending domestic movement to take away women's legal right to manage her body. In times of war, aggression is carefully weighed, not often from a feminist perspective. Rosalind P. Petchesky in the Women's Review of Books talks about "masculinism" and describes "militarism, nationalism and colonialism as terrains of power (that) have always been in large part contests over the meanings of manhood." She cites Cynthia Enloe who points out that "men's sense of their own masculinity, often tenuous, is as much a factor in international politics as is the flow of oil, cables, and military hardware." However, Petchesky, contends that women are not inherently more peace-loving, as demonstrated during the Gulf War in the yellow-ribbon campaign generated by women. Women of Vision has announced the formation of "Gather the Women," which is sponsoring an interactive web page for "spirit-based" actions for change. Global Exchange has launched "Code Pink" which addresses gender and class issues in war and conducts a daily White House vigil. The National Organization for Women (NOW) has adopted a resolution denouncing "the opportunistic use of fighting terrorism as an excuse for massive imperial expansion," with a request for NOW chapters to turn out in support of the Code Pink vigil. For many years, women in the Middle East and Arab states have conducted a silent "women in black" vigil in protest against violence and war. Absent in most of the media are the voices of Iraqi women who have rights distinct from surrounding countries vying for input into formulation of new leadership in Iraq. Iraqi women are in every profession, including the armed forces. They are pilots, pharmacists, dentists, educators, engineers and are 40 percent of physicians. The director-general of Telecommunications in Iraq is a woman; 40 percent of all university students are women. Were the voices of these women represented at a recent meeting called in Tehran by President Mohammad Khatami where "the Iranian made his purpose plain: to establish a relationship with men - and not just Iraqi Shiites - who may be members of the next government of neighboring Iraq?" (William Safire's column, New York Times, Jan. 9, 2003) Differences in the way women and men are socialized to behave in all cultures sometimes are reduced to aggression as "masculine" and cooperation as "feminine," but both provide an essential formula for the prevention of war. Rosemary Dunn Dalton is a clinical social worker and adjunct faculty, Southern Oregon University, psychology department. 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