Letters for May 29, 2008

Deadly world
Re “The antitoxic author” (Arts&Culture, May 22):

We must continue to look towards prevention and those environmental exposures that are both known and suspected to be linked to cancer. Cancer causing exposures that may even be found in some of our foods and sadly even our children’s toys. Despite what some may think, cancer is not an unlucky roll of the dice. Scientists tell us that 70-80 percent of all cancer is linked to the environment (as opposed to heredity), meaning that most all cancer comes from outside of our bodies, including behaviors such as smoking. Outcomes of collective environmental exposures relative to human health are not always known, but in the situation where the data may not be complete, we must never assume safety.

Bill Couzens
Middleburg, VA

People are cool
“Don’t be a loser” (Editor’s note, May 15):

I was sad to hear about your car’s break-in, but I was happy to see the Buddhist approach you took to the mishap. Will you accept a small donation to help replace your son’s fencing equipment if I drop by your office?

I also applaud you, at the end of the “Editor’s Note” section in using William James quote, but I thought, as a well schooled and talented journalist, you should have given James credit in addition to the credit you gave to Bruce Van Dyke. It almost sounds like the quote was Bruce’s quote.

Turning readers on to more of William James’ material could enlighten the public in a positive way.

Franklin Miller
via email

Editor’s note: Geez, Franklin, I don’t know what to say. Thanks for the offer, but it’s against our policies to accept those kinds of gifts at this newspaper. And yeah, William James is pretty cool; I’d recommend The Varieties of Religious Experience. For those who don’t know of him, he’s considered the father of American psychology.

La de da to you, sir
“Heller has confused priorities” (Left in the Lurch, May 15):

Well, la de frickin da, Mr. Farley. When I was stationed in Germany in the U.S. Army (‘62-65) I learned enough German to get by. The real challenge was that all my German and European friends wanted to practice their English on me. You’re peeved at Mr. Heller’s bill to make all legal documents English because it might disenfranchise a few folks whose English is poor. Well, boo hoo. Shame on you, sir; you’re old enough to remember folks from Europe came to America through Ellis Island. You can look it up. At least 95 percent of them first and foremost learned the English language and assimilated themselves into American culture. Unlike most of today’s immigrants (mostly the illegal ones) who want to be hyphenated-Americans; ie. Arab-Americans, Mexican-Americans.

The key here is that they want to be from their country and take from your and my country. What they give back is higher crime, more drugs, less money in our economy.

My original “shame on you” is really the point I’m trying to get across. Ballots or any legal document (city, state, federal) should indeed be English only … PERIOD. English is, after all, the official and unofficial language of these United States of America, isn’t it? As far as I’m concerned all illegal aliens from any country should be deported immediately, and I’m willing to let them come back through the proper and legal channels—that way we can keep the criminals and ne’erdowells among them out of our nation. And they should indeed be required to learn English first, lest this great nation become the country of Babel and fall under the spell of multi-culturalism—oops, too late that’s already happening.

Bob Reval
Truckee, Calif.

Freaky. Orwellian.
I was listening to a radio broadcast from Texas via the internet. Radio show host Alex Jones had Jesse Ventura—former Navy Seal, explosives expert and former governor of Minnesota—on his show. During the interview Mr. Ventura spoke about World Trade Center 7. I was completely uninformed about this topic. However, after listening to the interview, I did some research via the internet and was shocked to find that the BBC reported the fall of WTC7 20 minutes before the building actually collapsed. Also show host Jones pointed out that the building was not hit by a plane and World Trade Center owner Larry Silverstein made a statement in which he told news reporters that he made the final decision to “pull” WTC7. I didn’t understand what this meant but, after some searching, I found the term “pull” is a demolitions industry term for demolish. I am curious why none of the media sources are covering this or have covered this. Please help make your readers aware of this information as it may make them aware of the horrible situation our great republic is in!

Ezra Mondeva
via email

Editor’s note: Several media entities reported the collapse of WTC7 before it actually happened. In the confusion of that day, many rumors were reported. The collapse of WTC7 and ensuing theories have been extensively reported. For an engineering analysis in layperson’s language of the building’s collapse, see www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/911myths/4213805.html