All Readers Respond

Letters to the Editor for the May 5, 2014 weekly magazine:

Consumerism and technology are constantly trying to convince us of the self-evident absurdity that we can 'have it all'. In truth, we not only can't have it all, we really don't want it!

The look at heroin addiction in American suburbia brings attention to the paucity of spiritual control in our YOLO ('you only live once') society.

If, to protect itself from potential threats, the US can justify invading countries near the Russian sphere of influence, how can the US deny Russia the same justification with Crimea?

Letters to the Editor for the April 21, 2014 weekly magazine:

If change in schools is going to be more than the ritual of introducing a new set of jargon while continuing business as usual, change must be bottom-up and meet teachers' real needs.

I can attest firsthand to the negatives of an insidious drug subculture. Marijuana may have benefits for certain patients. But first its safety and efficacy must be established by FDA.

Letters to the Editor for the April 14, 2014 weekly magazine edition of the Monitor:

Must a sustainable economy depend on infinite expansion and mass extinction? I would like to believe there is a solution to both the survival of humanity and the natural world.

Not all the good TV shows originate on 'the other side of the pond.' In fact, those of us in England are counting on the US to keep producing good TV drama.

Letters to the Editor for the April 7, 2014 weekly magazine:

If it weren't for immigrants America would be in sad shape. Too many 'natives' are more interested in texting, celebrities, sports heroes, fighting over abortion and contraceptive rights, and denying global warming and evolution than promoting and improving education.

Many US colleges are funded by American taxpayers, and their first responsibility is to educate, inspire, and create opportunity for American youth. Should we be focusing on finding foreign talent, rather than recruiting and developing the talent of our own youth?

Letters to the Editor for the March 31, 2014 weekly magazine: 

Budget deficits now threaten benefits for veterans. Nobody likes to pay higher taxes, but America has a responsibility to those it sends to war. 

Syria's civil war is fundamentally a conflict between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, Christians, and Druze. By supporting the rebels, Mr. Obama has taken sides in a religious war.

Letters to the Editor for the March 24, 2014 weekly magazine:

Without mentioning the BDS movement's successes, a recent article on Israel's growth in the cyber security sector reads like a pro-Israel propaganda piece.

While reading about Europe's growing boycott of Israeli companies, I realized that European behaviors toward Israel have ranged from naive to hostile for decades.

Letters to the Editor for the March 17, 2014 weekly issue:

The Monitor's attention to any American extrajudicial killings has been solid and dependable.

Income inequality is excessive, and there are ways of reducing it without being unfair to higher-income individuals.

Letters to the Editor for the March 3, 2014 weekly magazine:

If authorities issues a death certificate for Jahi McMath after diagnosing her as brain dead, it would be logical to issue a "certificate of life" for every fetus whose 'brain waves'  be detected.

Scientific integrity weighs against premature claims that this winter's weird weather is a symptom of human-caused climate disruption. But a wait-and-see attitude may seal our doom.

Why do politicians want to reward employers who hired illegal workers, and why should their jobs receive special federal protection when the jobs of many Americans haven't.

Letters to the Editor for the March 3, 2014 weekly magazine: The US Constitution prohibits government from depriving a citizen of life, liberty, or property without due process. President Obama has demonstrated his indifference tow this protection by executing US citizens overseas.

Letters to the Editor for the February 24, 2014 weekly magazine: 

Without parameters for the term, how can one know if 'income inequality' has been eradicated?

Intuitively, the solution to income inequality is income equality. If that is not the goal, then there will always be income inequality – and the potential for class warfare.

An essay on meeting the Beatles reminds me of when our daughter Alice interviewed Mary Travers of the group Peter, Paul, and Mary, developing a relationship that lasted until Mary's death.

Letters to the Editor for the Feb. 17, 2014 weekly magazine:

If 'bridge-gate' was caused solely by Christie's underlings, he has no control of his staff. If he had prior knowledge of it, it is a criminal matter. Such a person is not deserving of the presidency – or a governorship.

The Pew Research Center projects that 82 percent of US population growth between 2005 and 2050 will come from immigrants and their descendants. Yet we dodge discussing the consequences demographics have on scarce water resources.

Letters to the Editor for the Feb. 10, 2014 weekly magazine: His wife handed out oranges from her basket and told us, 'In Iran, everything is good except the government. But governments come and go; the people stay.' We need to remember the people.

Letters to the Editor for the Feb. 3, 2014 weekly magazine:

Kenya's future is increasingly being dictated not by the national government or major businesses, but rather by civil society – the people. Hopefully, the trend will continue in Africa.

Internet shopping appealed to me until I realized it pointed to an anonymous shopping future with a total focus on cost and speed. My vision of retail would be that consumers seek out local stores and only turn to the big chains and the giant Amazon as a last resort.

Letters to the Editor for the January 27, 2014 weekly magazine edition of the Monitor: If looking at the removal of Christians from the Middle East, one shouldn't ignore the plight of Palestinian Christians under the Israeli occupation; Too many reporters and government representatives do not have the fortitude to tell the truth about Islam in the Middle East.

Letters to the Editor for the January 20, 2014 weekly magazine edition of the Monitor:

As retirees over 60, the closest Affordable Care Act policy to our old one costs 24 percent more and includes coverage we don't need. But the cost of our old policy has increased by 34 percent.

The ever-identical screens of my Kindle become mind-numbing, whereas the imperfections of my paper books serve as guideposts for locating key passages of text.

Finally, some research to explain why I never finish my e-books, but breeze through paper copies.

Letters to the Editor for the January 13, 2014 weekly magazine: Will the delay agreement become a Neville Chamberlain 'peace for our time' appeasement?; What of the media's double standard of silence on Israel's possession of nuclear weapons?; We should review the history of the lead-up to World War II and not repeat the same mistakes.

Letters to the Editor for the December 30, 2013 weekly magazine:

I teach English to female students in Kandahar over Skype. These delightful women are not brainwashed but rather eager to learn – and they take great personal risks to do so.

Frequently, when 'we the people' ask ourselves, 'What's the root problem?,' we come up with very different solutions from those offered by policymakers in Washington.

Letters to the Editor for the December 23, 2013 weekly magazine:

What is the use of an 'eraser law' such as California's that only allows teens to delete Internet activity that hasn't been retweeted, reposted, or otherwise dispersed online?

Kenya has a right to question the ICC's 'fairness' toward Africa, because of the enduring history of colonialism. As US retirees move to Latin America, that history may just be repeating itself. 

Letters to the Editor for the December 16, 2013 weekly magazine:

Citizens need to know how the candidates and the issues affect their state before they cast their votes. And the Democratic Party needs to be honest about why candidates win or lose.

Calls for US support of religious freedom will be sanctimonious hypocrisy as long as we fail to insist on real democracy and a fully secular resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Letters to the Editor for the December 9, 2013 weekly magazine:

Every other industrialized country has some type of national health-care system because it can't afford US-style medicine. And neither can America.

Accounts of good works Vietnam veterans are performing in Vietnam are heartening. US military personnel are increasingly proving the effectiveness of waging peace with humanitarian aid.