Film, August 30, 2007
When great minds meat: Unlike Mike D'Angelo, I was very impressed with Leonardo DiCaprio's powerful documentary,
The 11th Hour. The film depicts the devastating impacts of global warming, including droughts, hurricanes and flooding of coastal areas. It features interviews with the brightest minds on our planet about the causes of this man-made environmental crisis and possible solutions.
A powerful solution was suggested last November in a report by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization. The report found that meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. That's more than automobiles! Carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and combustion of fossil fuels to operate farm machinery, trucks, refrigeration equipment, factory farms and slaughterhouses. Much more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are released from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively. The good news is that each of us can do our part to reduce global warming on our next trip to the supermarket. More details are available at www.coolyourdiet.org.
Steven Dillman, St. Louis
News Short, August 23, 2007
Live and let live: I think that Lewis Greenberg, who was featured in Aimee Levitt's "Holocaust Revisited," should be allowed to keep his sculpture right where it is. I graduated high school with Lewis and am glad he is displaying his feelings for what happened in the Holocaust. I live in Webster Groves near Ron Kuper, who followed his dream by bringing in columns, naked statues and lions of various sizes to his front and back yard — and we all accept it. It's his property. Neither Lewis nor Ron Kuper are drug dealers. They don't play loud music until all hours of the night. They are actually good neighbors, albeit different than the norm. People should respect this and not cause them any turmoil. Just my opinion.
Ellen Harken, Webster Groves
Feature, August 9, 2007
Bad war —
bad, bad war: Kristen Hinman's article about Marine Cloy Richards and his Christ-like mom should be published on the front pages of every newspaper in America. I also loved the photo of his mom, whose eyes told the whole truth about this lying war in Iraq. Unfortunately, such articles and photos are rarely seen in corporate media. They have to be seen on occasion for corporate media to maintain its "liberal" credibility with the public it is designed to manipulate. There are many marines and soldiers like Cloy and many parents like his mom fighting against the war in Iraq. According to a Zogby poll, "72 percent of U.S. troops in Iraq believe they should have been withdrawn in 2006." The courageous Virginia senator and war hero James Webb also pointed out a poll in
The New York Times, which indicated that a majority of the U.S. military does not support the president's occupation of Iraq. A
Military Times poll of its military subscribers confirms that the troops are not goose-stepping to Bush's lies.
A number of national anti-war groups made up of veterans and soldiers get little attention from the corporate media — only crumbs after a whole lot of begging. Some of these are Bringthemhomenow.org, Votevets.org, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The latter does not publicly state that it opposes the war in Iraq, but it does aggressively question the war.
Regarding Cloy Richards protesting in his uniform, I would say that he earned the property rights to that uniform by risking his life, limb and sanity fighting in Iraq.
Scott Oppenheim, St. Louis
