Letters to the Editor

Free news on the Web can also be free of ads

An interesting perspective was presented in the Aug. 14 Opinion article, "Fee content vs. free content." As the article noted, for online news content to work as free content, it must be supported by advertisements. The article in the online version was carried with display ads from several major corporations. I suppose those ads generated revenue to support the free content.

Technology is ever evolving, and those ads were suppressed by an ad-block feature on my browser. The free content I saw was completely ad free. As I looked at my ad-free screen I wondered how the Monitor was generating revenue, and briefly suppressed my ad-block program to get a glimpse of what I had been missing. I wonder what the future of online news content will be when more readers use ad blockers, and advertisers are not guaranteed any viewers at all – especially when the classified ad market has been decimated by community advertising sites. I hope news organizations can survive in this evolving world.

Tom Buchanan
Londonderry, Vt.

Encourage the use of filtered water

In response to the Aug. 14 Opinion article, "Kick the bottled-water habit," the destructive glut of plastic bottles is undeniable. But questionable unfiltered tap water is not the answer. The author should have admitted the problems with public water systems and then given the solution readily available – reverse osmosis and other filtering processes. Unfiltered tap water used to brew tea and coffee renders the drink unacceptably tainted with chlorine, and because of this, restaurants filter their water for table water and drink preparation.

Maybe others will point out books and articles that will actually encourage the use of filtered tap water in a society where artificially flavored drinks draw the thirsty public to artificial and natural sweeteners and away from a properly purified water drink.

Jan Kater
Lake Jackson, Texas

Catching illegal migrants is unworthy

The Aug. 14 editorial, "A worthy check on illegal workers" says that enforcement of immigration laws is a healthy trend. I am ashamed to be of a generation that thinks that building a fence and deporting working immigrants is a great idea. Is this the best we can do as a nation? Maybe the next generation will understand that our intentions were misguided by ignorance and fear.

Jaime Mundo
Columbia, S.C.

Applauding the administration's cynical decision to make life more difficult for illegal immigrants is contemptible. These people represent the poorest in our country. They struggle to make a living in the nation's underground economy by taking the backbreaking jobs. The money they mail back home helps to feed their families.

Arnold Zamorano
Sacramento, Calif.

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