How Do We Change?
I enjoyed last week’s Flyer cover story (“How Do We Change?” November 15th issue). There were lots of thoughtful suggestions, some obvious suggestions, and some self-serving suggestions. The bottom line, as always in Memphis, is our battle to overcome poverty and its direct cause: an undereducated populace. Here’s hoping that, since so many of our leaders recognize the problem, we will actually make some progress toward fixing it in 2013.
A quibble: Why was only one woman interviewed?
John Adams
Memphis
Both Parties are Failing
Tim Sampson’s Rant (November 15th issue) makes it sound like the 2012 presidential election was a mandate from the masses against the Republican Party’s ideology. The final electoral vote (332-206) certainly looks like a landslide, but the popular vote (63 million to 59 million) tells a different story.
The gloaters of the past two elections were the pained losers of the previous two, and vice versa. If one of the two major parties was really vastly superior to the other, I think we’d see a long string of victories for one party, rather than the back-and-forth ping-ponging that seems to be the pattern. This pattern leads me to believe that we the people aren’t particularly enamored of either party.
I, for one, am ready to give one of the minor parties a shot. What do we have to lose, really? If we don’t like the results of the experiment, we can always vote them out and return to “safer” ground. At least, it might temporarily ebb the ongoing growth of the national debt, which is unsustainable and will ultimately be the death of this great nation. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil, in my humble opinion.
Steve Hiss
Memphis
She’ll Miss Us
I will miss the Flyer. I always liked to see what was going on in Memphis. I even had an article published some years back. But now that the Flyer is a hard-leftist newspaper, it gives me no choice but to pick it up at the newsstand and throw it in the trash.
I hope all who worship at the feet of President Obama enjoy reading the Flyer when they are laid off.
Carole Fincher
Memphis
Skip the Turkey
With his recent reelection, President Obama has won the power to pardon more turkeys on Thanksgiving. But so does every one of us, by choosing a nonviolent Thanksgiving observance that gives thanks for our good fortune, health, and happiness with a life-affirming, cruelty-free feast of vegetables, fruits, and grains.
And here are more terrific reasons: You will stay alert through the entire football game. You are what you eat. (Who wants to be a “butterball”?)
Your vegetarian kid won’t have to boycott the family dinner. You won’t have to call Poultry Hotline to keep your family alive. Fruits and vegetables don’t have to carry government warning labels. You won’t sweat the environment and food-resources devastation guilt trip. You won’t spend a sleepless night wondering how the turkey lived and died. Your body will welcome a holiday from saturated fat, cholesterol, and hormones.
Our own dinner this Thanksgiving will feature a “tofurky,” lentil roast, mashed potatoes, corn stuffing, stuffed squash, candied yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. An internet search on “vegetarian Thanksgiving” got us more recipes and other useful information than we could possibly use.
Morris Furman
Memphis
Your Weekly Dagmar
Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and we all like to find things to be thankful for. I am so thankful, at the age of 65, that society demands that we wear clothes. It would be really depressing to see all these old people walking around naked all the time. Even young people would be depressed to think they would look like that someday. I feel confident that I am not the only 65-year-old who is sagging, bagging, and waffling. So, let’s hear it for clothes!
And I do have a question for female baby boomers. If you burned your bra in the 1960s, are you sorry?
Dagmar Bergan
Helena, Arkansas
