Letters to the Editor
amspeck
Published Letters: 357 Editor's Choice: 50
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Zen
[Read the article: I quit being a musician because I couldn't play without drinking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The LW mentions Zen in an offhand way, and says he's "tried" meditation, but I think he should give it a real, committed go. Find himself a community that's practicing meditation and immerse himself. It is the one thing he's mentioned that one can be part of without ever hoping to be "the best."
I hit my 20's with the dream of getting ordained. I worked my heart out and worked long hours hoping to get recognized in my church community and sponsored for ordination. When I realized I was hopelessly trapped below the glass ceiling -- I talked about it in terms of having a genetic disorder - I lack a Y chromosome -- I had a crisis of dreams, of faith, of identity. I took a data entry job at a financial company and grieved. It was meditation that got me through. I was part of a contemplative prayer group at a church and that's where I learned the basics and the discipline to keep showing up no matter how stirred up or angry I got in the previous sitting. I read Joko Beck and Pema Chodron and Thomas Merton on how to be here, to be in this disappointing, painful life, and not be defined by it.
I miss my youthful passion and idealism, but life on this side of it is pretty darn good.
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New York and Asthma
[Read the article: Environmental advocacy at its finest]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It addition to the points made in the article, another fine point to rebut the complaint exists... There is a high correlation between exposure to diesel exhaust and asthma.
Small things like congestion pricing, filters on diesel trucks, locating trash processing hubs closer to the trash, have all been considered by the assembly in the last year and all have failed. Each one would do more to cut exposure to asthma-causing irritants than all the paper bags brought home by Whole Foods customers who forgot their reusable plastic bags put together.
(The Whole foods bags in my area are made out of recycled soda bottles, not canvas. The Target bags are made from old plastic Target bags fused together. Want to avoid paper? Bring your plastic bags!)
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Pining for the past
[Read the article: Bush's lame-duck climate change proposal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I heard some of the speech this morning and couldn't shake the feeling that Bush thinks it's the US's job to write legislation the whole world will follow. That if we won't play, no one will play. But that's not the case. The rest of the world is moving forward without us and we're gazing at our Industrial Era jobs in a pool surrounded by daffodils.
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The first thing I think in the morning
[Read the article: David Brooks' fictitious defense of his industry's behavior]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]David Brooks is right. The first thing I think about in the morning is whether or not I'd look good in a tank. And I sure want a president who'd look good in a tank too. And in lycra. And who bowls a 300 the first time he touches a ball. Because, man!, my ideal president is a buffed-out athlete.
Not!
To counter Brook's argument, it is the looking uncomfortable but being willing to try all those things that make someone seem like me rather than sitting in a Gray tower looking down on me.
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Too specific
[Read the article: Let's dump "Earth Day"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What I like about "Earth Day" is its very broadness. I can't do anything about polar bears or saving soil. But I can do something.
I can refuse to buy stuff today. I can take reusable bags this week and pledge to do so all year. I can carpool in a diesel car, walk, or ride my bike for all my travel today, and I can think about how much of that I can do in the future. I can reflect on my environmental efforts over the last year -- cutting 400 kw hours of use over the 4 months of winter use in my home, driving a car that gets 34 mpg 8,000 miles instead of one that gets 22 mpg 14,000 miles. Taking no plane trips and having two great vacations anyway. I can remember that the very best shopping experiences I've had over the last year were interactions with other people, not amassing more stuff.
Locally, my city uses Earth day to do education including a sustainability fair, an Earth festival, and contacting businesses about going zero waste.
These are the kinds of things that I think "Earth" day invites and "soil" day or "water" day would not.
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Not enough offsets
[Read the article: FedEx bets on the California sunshine]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think if FedEx bought every legitimate, certified offset available on the market today, they could not offset their footprint. And if that 450 million dollar check can't build all those solar power plants, then that isn't high enough either.
The fundamental question is, if the fuel was gone, how would FedEx do business? If the coal was gone, how would Target/Walmart/Comcast/Uncle Sam do business? Solar is a lot of the answer -- a huge investment in solar starting now, not 10 years from now. But how do you fly on stored sunshine?
FedEx and every company in the world needs to start behaving like these two fundamental fuels are going away... not because of Kyoto or any other protocol, but because our survival depends on stopping now.
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Another Source
[Read the article: The Strategic Pandering Reserve]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Marketplace also did a good analysis of President Bush's comments on the price of oil today: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/29/bush_moon_q/
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It's not the demand
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Marketplace, the public radio finance show, did an analysis of the reasons gas prices are going up (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/29/bush_moon_q/):
- Demand is going down in the US.
- Refining capacity is going up.
- Gasoline reserves are increasing.
And no one is waiting in line for gas. So, why are prices going up?
Two reasons:
- The decline of the dollar overseas. If we borrow the money for yet another tax cut, this will only get worse.
- Speculators betting up the price of a barrel of oil. A tax holiday doesn't help this either. It just moves needed money out of the Federal coffers and into the pockets of those rich enough to play.
As McCain has said, he's not so good with economics.