This week is issue eight of Eat the State!, our ongoing print, Internet and radio experiment in mainstreet (as opposed to mainstream) media. Even though space is limited, we want to at least occasionally check in with readers and let ya know what we're up to.

The initial response to ETS! has been phenomenal, with demand far exceeding what we expected or hoped. We figured it would take time to establish ourselves, and that weekly publishing would work in our favor. It still will, but in the meantime we've gotten help, enthusiasm and big strokes from so many folks we couldn't begin to list them all. Thanks to all of you reading this, you know who you are and what you've done. It's meant a lot.

The other surprise is that, by mail, e-mail, and web, we've gained an astonishing number of readers from outside Western Washington (and even a few outside North America). It seems to us that people are hungry, not just for information, but context. And humor, and hope. We'll do what we can, but the ultimate answer is to have hundreds, thousands of these sorts of projects going on. Before we started everyone told me ETS! was impossible. That's what they'll tell you, too. Go ahead. Do what you do best, and prove them wrong.

Some responses to oft-asked questions:

Q: "What does `Eat the State!' mean?" Short answer #1: whatever you want. Short answer #2: we dunno, it just tested well in our focus groups. Longer answer #1: it's a playful riff on "eat the rich," which we changed to avoid cliche and because it's not people we want to target, but institutions that create injustice. Longer answer #2: eat it, digest it, shit it, return it to the earth, and let something new and organic grow.

Q: "Could you tone it down a bit?" Why? A lot of people in this country are very, very angry, and have a good idea of what's wrong and who's responsible. Appealing to what corporate America defines as the "center" and politely petitioning for change has been done. It got us eight years of Bill Clinton (R-Wall St.).

What we want instead is to reflect the talk of your co- workers, students, relatives, vast numbers of reasonably intelligent, worried people who don't see their concerns aired in the media. Endless rhetoric and abstract theorizing mean nothing to them. Hard information, attitude, and hope do. People's voices are just as valid as what's spoon-fed us by corporations, politicians, and their media. If more folks in the U.S. simply trusted our own lived experiences rather than what we're sold, we'd be a long way toward fundamental social change.

Q: "Can you run [fill in whatever]?" Short answer: no, we don't have room. Longer answer: we would have room if we had more money. We are an extremely shoestring, volunteer effort. Our reproduction is labor-intensive and not the best quality, but its cost is largely donated. We have room for four pages of too-small print. We don't have the volunteer energy to create a longer Net edition; and frankly, because we want to encourage a local community of resistence and advocacy, we don't want ETS!'s primary audience to be people who find us via computers and modems.

We want a quick read, so it's hard to imagine printing more than eight pages, but even that would allow us to run some of the great letters we get each week, "Unpublished Letters To The Editor" (of other publications), "Local Heroes" (locals making a difference who aren't profiled cuz they're not associated with a new Microsoft product release), a longer calendar, more features, graphics, ads, etc. More silliness. We can't do it without money.

Q: "Where can I find it?" Write us for a distributor list. While these first few weeks have been an adventure in getting a volunteer distribution routine set, a bigger problem has been meeting demand; we can't print nearly as many as people want. Places run out, we run out. Again, money would help a lot. If you like what we're doing, and have some, send some. Heck, if you have a lot, send a lot. If you're part of a progressive business, buy an ad. Consider it a community investment. In the same way corporations buy politicians, we can encourage activism and different ways of thinking. And we're more fun.

While we're shilling: ye editor and some of the other ETS! conspirators will be at the NACC/WaSPAN "One Dollar, One Vote" Election Night party (check calendar for details). Come hang with kindred folks on D-Night, or at least find out what sort of fools would do this every week...