Letters to the Editor
suzvet
Published Letters: 23 Editor's Choice: 3
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Maybe not ruining society...
[Read the article: Single mothers are ruining society!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For our family, the most unsettling thing about sending our preschooler to day care has been the number of kids (seriously, in the range of about 5-10) who either develop an attachment to my husband, or openly say they don't have a father, or talk about how they are getting "two mommies and two daddies."
As a couple who waited until we were well into our careers and our thirties to marry and have kids, we care a lot about the environment our kids are in each day, and we do notice the extra stress that these kids from single parent homes are under.
Truthfully, raising a child, even one, is tough and it does take two grown-ups to even begin to do this well. Like it or not, this rise in single parenthood has changed the timber of our classrooms and of childhood itself.
One difference I've noticed since living outside the U.S., is the use of "sensitivity training." Infants are routinely brought into classrooms in elementary schools, and students talk about child development and point out differences in how an infant communicates (or moves, or eats, etc.) versus themselves. This program was initiated as an effort to prevent bullying, but it also provides an early awareness for boys and girls of what goes into raising a child.
I've often also thought that boys could benefit a great deal from more artistic and nurturing play in the preschool years, if it weren't from the rampant homophobia in North America. It's fathers themselves, either through their absence or in their fear of seeing their sons with a doll, who are teaching the next generation of men how to walk away from their children.
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An environmental perspective...
[Read the article: An Olympic disgrace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Many of the posters have mentioned that China's growing affluence will push them towards more Western tastes in food (i.e. beef, pork and chicken). Isn't this very trend one of the drivers behind increasing food prices and global demand for grain and dairy? Have you seen the reports from Haiti, where people are eating mudcakes because they can no longer afford flour?
Indeed, if our foolhardy policies on biofuels continue, China wouldn't (and I assure you, isn't currently) the only country using cats and dogs as a protein source.
Furthermore, with the general overpopulation of cats and dogs all over the world, isn't consumption a rather green way of thinning the herd, rather than using harsh drugs, incineration, and the landfill?
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Same boat, 9 years ago
[Read the article: I'm embarrassed to admit I met my guy online]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I met my husband in 1999 on match.com. We also felt completely dippy about advertising the fact, and when we were asked we just sort of shrugged and said we hung out at the same billiard bar (which we did, in the early days of our relationship). Yawn. Boring question, boring answer. Problem solved.
Our closest friends knew, and I think even our families knew after we got married. It hardly matters now...
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Suggestions for each list
[Read the article: Reading your way to a Y chromosome]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Women: Lolita and Love in the Time of Cholera
Man: Farmer Boy (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
I can't believe Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man wouldn't have made the list-probably the most "man-to-man" criticism of white men. Ever.
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This is a North American problem
[Read the article: Where have you gone, Marcus Welby?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Finally, a health care issue that is equally dire in both the U.S. AND Canada, with similar root causes (not enough Canadians who are interested) and solutions (how to provide incentives, recruit from abroad). What an amazing opportunity for both countries to share information and work together for a solution that would benefit basic health care for the entire region.
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Not VP material
[Read the article: McCain: No, really, we vetted her!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Now there are photos, provided by her family, of Palin wearing a shirt that says "I may be broke, but I'm not flat busted." Nice
Plus, she eloped and had a baby 8 months later.
Oh, McCain, what have you done.
The white trash VP.
McCain truly jumped the shark.
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Friday
[Read the article: McCain: No, really, we vetted her!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why didn't they tell us all this stuff on Friday?
Wouldn't that have been the intelligent decision?
He had the nomination sewed up 3 months before Obama yet the details of his VP Choice come trickling in one horrific fact at a time.
Even if Palin was the great pick the GOP claims not being upfront about all her details is dumb and shows bad leadership.
Case closed.
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SNL
[Read the article: The rap on Palin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Forget Palin.
They did a skit where a man shoots ping-pong balls out his ass.
Then a Suz Orman bit where she made several lesbian jokes and ended with a zinger that included "Pussy."
And Bravo to Mark Wahlber for making a multi-show bit to get himself into the Sarah Palin episode. He started it on Kimmel Friday. Best Part? By talking to the donkey he proved that he's a good sport as well.
Mrs. I tried to have books banned and a guy shoots ping-pong balls out his ass.
Fantastic.
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This is where liberals shoot themselves in the foot...
[Read the article: Diploma with a side of fries]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ms. Benfer assumes that going to a vocational school is some kind of life-ruining insult, rather than an opportunity to learn a valuable trade and rich personal experience. I think someone in the construction or food service industries would learn plenty more about immigration and discrimination than that liberal arts major writing essays.
And who's to say that a college education has to come three months from high school graduation? There's always time, (and with a plumber's salary, money) to go back to school, or pick up a classic book, if one wants to.
What's important is that kids are directed to occupations that suit them, whether it's auto repair or English lit. It would help if we could tone down this elitist notion that college is the only way to a cultivated mind--or is it a liberal voter?