Letters to the Editor
wahwahpetal
Published Letters: 11 Editor's Choice: 4
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Racism
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton: The Asian-American choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm Chinese and I'm American so I speak from personal experience. When I came of dating age, my mother wanted me to date Chinese boys who have good family value. I was flabbergasted. My first and only boyfriend is Caucasian. I love him not because of his skin color but because we shared the same interests (historical fencing) and the similar political values. Above all, he has shown through his actions that he is sweet, kind, thoughtful. His brother's girlfriend has a Caucasian mother and African American father.
What I have learned is that the only way to predict what people will do is to look at their past actions. In regards to this article, I think that Obama's decision made sense by giving support to moderate conservatives who still believed in small government and minimal government intrusion into people's lives.
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Pay down credit card debt and then student loan
[Read the article: What will YOU do with your fiscal stimulus check?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't remember buying much but I have a $1600 credit card bill this month. I go to Goodwill and Value Village. I buy only a week's worth of food at most at a time. But buying environmentally sustainable food is expensive.
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Supply and Demand
[Read the article: Paying the polysilicon piper]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@Nancy Ott
I agree that all parties involved lacked ethics. But let's not forget supply and demand. The German and Spanish consumers didn't have to buy the solar panels from the Chinese manufacturers. They did because they have a financial incentive to save money. They had the choice of demanding all their suppliers to maintain and prove their environmental standards. They didn't.
Every time I heard these kinds of stories, I weep for my homeland.
Zhu Zhu
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Bland?
[Read the article: How the fortune cookie crumbles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"food was awful to me, really greasy and bland"
China is a big country that encompasses a lot of regions. To say all Chinese food is greasy and bland is ignorant. Each region of China has distinctive cuisine based on the regional agricultural products and climate. And different food calls for different preparation techniques.
Try restaurants that serve different dishes depending on the season. Those, I found, tend to have cooks who still remember what home food tastes like.
If anyone who knows of a good place to find Ma Po Do Fu in Seattle area, please let me know. The dish I had in ChengDu still haunts me to this day.
Zhu Zhu
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Where is the help?
[Read the article: No more plastic bags, no more jobs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The supply of sustainable goods will not be there until there is a demand for it. Now, most people still demand cheap goods regardless of the longterm costs.
If sustainability is so important to you, do you buy sustainably produced products? Do you call your congressional representatives to ask them to extend US technologies to China? Do you try to decrease your ecological footprint?
Until the more developed countries like US cuts consumption and pollution, less developed countries would say that US is hypocritical. US needs to lead by example. I agree that environmental damage would cost way more than the current nominal savings. But it's easy to sit in US and write comments on a website. Will you teach sustainability in China and India? Will you roll up your sleeves and help bring people out of poverty using sustainable business practices? Until people are no longer trying to make a decent living, they will not have the time or energy to read it.
Currently, there is no definite answer on the relationship between sustainability and the triple bottom line (people, profit, environment). Dr. Dorathy Paun at University of Washington is currently analyzing a set of data from Dr. Morhart with her graduate students regarding that particular issue.
http://courses.washington.edu/sustains/
Zhu Zhu
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Reforestation process
[Read the article: Eating the Amazon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How long does it take for complete reforestation? In the Pacific Northwest, it's an arduous process for the conifers to grow big and tall enough to shade out the invasive plants. Until then, volunteers must regularly weed restoration projects. And that's just the plants. Other organisms like amphibians and reptiles need continuous forest for reproducing genetically diversify
Biodiversity is not just a trendy word. There are real consequences for the lack of biodiversity. There are still medicinal knowledge we can gleam from the rainforest.
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how history is written
[Read the article: The China syndrome]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]History is written by the victor. I think it's almost funny that no one has mentioned how the West forced opened China's market to sell opiads. How conveniently forgotten.
What does Needham say about the Opium Wars?
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Paul Stamet
[Read the article: Ask Pablo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www.laweekly.com/columns/a-considerable-town/a-good-spore/14839/
http://unjobs.org/authors/paul-stamets
He studies fungi. He has used fungi to get rid of ants and termites in his house. The man is amazing. I'm so glad that I had the pleasure of hearing him lecture in person.
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What happened to personal responsibility?
[Read the article: Indiana Jones and the kingdom of fat kids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't like the rampant advertising but I just ignore it. I've been ignoring it since I was ten when I first moved to United States. Personal responsibility starts at home. It's vital that parents open their children's palate. It took me years to enjoy bittermelon. I love it now because I've eaten it consistently with my parents.
Help one person you know. I mean really help. Spend time with them exploring food.