Stop bullies before they start
Re: “Bully for Them”
6/22/01

Too much current talk about the issue of bullying focuses on teenagers. Bullies and victims learn their roles before they ever even step foot on a playground. They get their training at home. Schools should do more to recognize this as early as possible and prevent the eventual development of bullies.

Sherry Monarko

Get ’em from both sides
Re: “Gas War”
6/21/01

There is an old expression in marketing that states, “You need to nail it at the top and the bottom.” It’s all well and good to boycott on the investment side, but it would be just as appropriate to boycott on the retail side. Information needs to be presented about who is buying the oil and where it is being retailed.

Bill Haase

New Green Deal’s big opponents
Re: “A New Green Deal”
6/21/01

The digital revolution was fueled by investment from the military and the space industry. There was a lot of competition and no one had a vested interest in keeping the vacuum tube industry alive when transistors appeared on the scene.

In contrast, the Bush administration is intimately tied in with Big Oil and Big Electricity — they have an interest in helping the current energy companies. As long as they can buy legislators at will, and as long as middle-income Americans identify with the wealthiest 10 percent, there will be no New Green Deal forthcoming.

Mark Worden

Stop school soda
Re: “Schoolhouse Rot”
6/20/01

Soda is one of the worst beverages anyone could drink. I am appalled at how people don’t think twice about what they put into their bodies. I read an article called, Confessions from a Can of Soda, which talked about how soda leaches calcium out of bones and how the high sugar content leads to hypoglycemia or diabetes. Now, I don’t drink soda, nor do I allow my children to drink it. I am hypoglycemic and am convinced drinking soda is a direct result. Stop this atrocity in our schools.

Michelle Ramsey

More fiction than fact
Re: “A New Green Deal”
6/19/01

I think this article is terribly one sided. The discharge water from nuclear plants, for instance, is heated only a few degrees above ambient and rather than killing sea life actually causes a boom in sea life due to the warmer, more oxygen-rich water. The author obviously exaggerated the negative aspects.

Paul Childress

A revolution ready to happen
Re: “A New Green Deal”
6/17/01

More people ought to be writing in such optimistic, entrepreneurial themes. If American business cannot compete, it will simply be left behind. The Honda Insight and Toyta Prius (two hybrid gasoline/electric cars) are catching on as gas prices go through the roof. In the 60s, Americans started buying Japanese cars for quality and price. Now, we’ll buy them for operating costs as gas goes above $2 per gallon.

Back to your point: Once upon a time there was a man called Thomas Malthus. He, too, was a doomsday prognosticator — he predicted fast population growth and an impending shortage of foods and goods in early modern times. Along came the agricultural/industrial revolution and voila! Sustainability. We’re at the cusp of one of those revolutions now.

Barbara Creaghan

Wasteful US
Re: “A New Green Deal”
6/17/01

It makes sense, but I’m not sure that this administration has the ability to fathom this problem that’s staring them in the face. If indeed the federal government has $60 billion for a useless and inoperative missle defense system, the New Green Deal would be cheaper and far more effective in maintaining global superiority without the danger of accidently starting another war.

James Loughran

Government goes green
Re: “A New Green Deal”
6/16/01

Fantastic article! Right on the money. But it doesn’t go quite far enough. Why not add that any new government buildings must be green buildings? There is a company in the UK that is designing buildings that are beautiful, environmentally friendly in and of themselves, and essentially cost nothing to heat and cool. Why not mandate specifications like these into any new federal government buildings as well?

Greg Chandelier

Flashy and impressive
Re: “If I Had a Missile”
6/16/01

Mark Fiore’s latest Flash cartoon is truly inspired. Thank you.

Jason Patterson

Debtors need a voice in change
Re: “Chapter 11 for the Third World?”
6/15/01

The long-term solution for third-world countries includes self-determination skills for the populations at large. I think conditional relief is appropriate but the conditions must be determined by the civil society of the debtor nations.

Richard Hartung