The American Way vs. France's Rural Way of Life

Regarding the Opinion page article "The Americanization of Rural France," Dec. 17: At last someone is articulating what most Americans just don't seem to understand - some things are more important than bottom-line profits.

I have lived in Provence and know what the author is talking about. It is a place where one can walk for miles through fields, forests, and delightful little villages; bathe in rivers and streams; see small family-run farms that look like those pictures suburban Americans dream over.

These are the kinds of things virtually all Frenchmen, farmers, and city dwellers, are willing to pay for, and with good reason. Contrast what I have described with the general American rural landscape or land-wasting suburbs, oversized resource-wasting homes, and enormous fenced-in fields.

Wake up, America! Listen to the French, and we might just understand that we are laying waste our country's land and depriving millions of its people of a rural livelihood - so that a few might live in shamefully wasteful luxury. Jon F. Myhre, Pasadena, Calif.

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