Readers write: Food waste, gun control debate
Extra food for others
Regarding the May 30 People Making a Difference piece: I was thrilled to read about the work of Laurie “Duck” Caldwell in gleaning surplus crops. It troubles me that, in a country where many children go hungry (more than 1 in 3 in the New York borough of the Bronx!), we are wasting about 30 to 40 percent of all food produced. Our CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm donates all “leftovers” (shares not picked up by members) to a local center for recent immigrants; this food is a healthy addition to their diet, which most certainly consists mainly of “cheap” food. I feel certain that there are plenty of other groups doing a similar thing. Just to say... if each of us helps in our own small way, we can make it better for everyone.
Elisa Bremner
Armonk, N.Y.
How to handle gun problems
Regarding the June 22 article “Democrats sit in: Treading a line between leadership, grandstanding”: Talk about sitting down on the job! Postmodern progressives are a strange breed with regard to gun control. They apparently believe that if we make the acquisition of assault rifles more difficult in the United States, where 10 million assault weapons are already legally owned and where there is an active aftermarket, then things will be better.
They never address the 350 million guns presently in circulation and actually oppose policing measures designed to eliminate illegally owned guns on the street by claiming that some such tactics, like stop-and-frisk, are an infringement of civil liberties, usually those of minorities.
More stringent gun control can be justified by, for instance, tightening gun-show loopholes or revisiting the sale of guns to those on a terror or no-fly watchlist or people with demonstrated mental instability, but more gun control is no panacea.
Our progressive friends simply must do better. They must address the toxic ideologies that drive shooters.
Paul Bloustein
Cincinnati
