I want to thank Forum editorial page editor Jack Zaleski for his analysis and insight into the origins of income inequality (column, Jan. 12). For too long we've heard the intellectual rot that states that people earn what they make in this country. I'm sure it's a revelation to many that it's not hard work and perseverance that generate wealth but instead its acts of class warfare. This is just the kind of message the country needs to hear in these troubling times and I hope everyone takes it to heart and acts upon it.
In particular I thinks it's time to do something about the injustice that is rampant at The Forum. Zaleski's income and benefits are much higher than a college intern or any new reporter for that matter. We know that this difference in benefits is the result of class warfare between those getting more and those getting less. No doubt many of these new employees have been women -- probably even single mothers -- but this did not stop Zaleski's unrelenting oppression.
The plight of minorities is even worse. The racial and ethnic composition of the reporting staff does not represent the composition of the United States at large. Any intellectual will tell you that this difference is due to institutional bias and discrimination or, in other words, the prejudicial rule of Zaleski and his fellow white warlords. Those excluded suffer not the indignity of a low salary but no salary at all.
Taking Zaleski's example of a RedHawk's baseball game --if they don't get a cheap seat they get no seat. Instead they huddle outside of the fence and listen to the cheers and joy expressed by the crowd knowing all the time that they have no part in this community -- not even on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Zaleski in his brilliant analysis and insight identifies the source of society's inequalities, yet he continues to participate in the warfare. He knows what he did and what he continues to do. This makes his no ordinary act of war but one of premeditation and therefore aggression.
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In light of these transgressions there is but one solution. Zaleski must immediately cease hostilities and most importantly must pay reparations to those he has wronged. He owes every junior reporter who has ever worked at The Forum, every want-to-be reporter who has been denied employment and those too intimidated to apply for work in the first place. The amount of payment will be the cumulative income differential multiplied by a yet to be determined factor to account for pain and suffering.
The sooner there is a reckoning for Zaleski and his toadies the sooner we will build a just society and begin the healing.
Otnes lives in Fargo.
