THE CASE AGAINST BIRTH CONTROL
It’s 5:30 a.m. Husband snoring away. Dog in my lap. Nice quiet time for reading The Rake. I howled at your column [Sex & the Married Man, October]. At fifty-plus years old, I identified with every word. This liberally raised, nontraditional Catholic encourages couples who do not want children, not to do so. Have sex, though. Children do bring significant change to a marriage. For those ready and willing to accept the responsibility, it is fabulous. We enjoyed every stage of our children’s lives. They are wonderful beings—raised with solid values and an excitement to test life, take risks, and maintain solid ethics. My eldest son teaches special ed in the Bronx. While in college at Carleton, his favorite T-shirt read: “You are not required to reproduce.” My younger son, a literary student at a high school devoted to the arts, was manhandled by a Republican patrol guard at the Bush rally (recently held in St. Cloud, for obvious reasons) for wearing a “Kerry for President” button. They have great spirit for living, are engaged in what’s happening around them, are fierce protectors of human rights and social justice, and the result of “oops, we’re pregnant” happenings early in their parents’ sex-filled marriage. You will be great parents. Thanks for the laugh. I must go make coffee now…I hear the other side rising. It’s garbage day and coffee helps him get the mess to the curb.
Sue Mackert
St. Cloud
TO HAVE KIDS OR NOT?
Why do you feel that couples who elect not to have children in the near future or even at all are “self-centered and looking out for number one”? Sure people have their reasons for having or not having kids, but to call them self-centered? I just don’t understand. Is staying single being self-centered? Do the friends of a single man say, “Gee, Bill, you’re an attractive, virile young man with a great job. Why don’t you get married?” Can a single man enjoy thesingle life of dating, or the simple pleasures of returning home from a hard day’s work just to veg out on the couch and read a book or go out to a coffee house or movie? Regarding the friend “Steve” who complains about his higher healthcare premiums subsidizing coworkers with family coverage: That’s really no different than a nonsmoker complaining about the same situation with smokers running up premiums. They’re both something that we’ll probably never be able to change, and, true, it is a fact of life. But to call Steve or others like him self-centered because of those two reasons is rather ignorant. You should know; you were once “not expecting.”
Brian Jonas
Minneapolis
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
Regarding “Foot in Mouth” [Good Intentions, October]: Americans not only don’t win major American marathons, much less foreign, but we frequently don’t place in the top ten or even top twenty. While not as pronounced, we are not particularly competitive at anything longer than four hundred meters. The long-term decline in American fitness and grotesque increase in obesity is tragic and must be reversed. The Olympic marathon in Athens provides a glimmer of hope with “Americans” Mebrahtom Keflezighi and Deena Kastor finishing second and third, respectively. Marathon competitions, of course, recognize differences based upon gender, age, and being confined to a wheelchair, and they categorize results for more equitable competition. It would be sad indeed if we felt the need to segregate “Americans” as well.
John Newman
Minneapolis
HU’S ON FIRST?
I exchanged several emails with Sari Gordon over a period of a few weeks while she was putting together this article [“Hu Are You?,” October]. I was therefore quite surprised when I read the article and saw so many glaring inaccuracies. She wrote that “the basic teachings of Eckankar are virtually identical to Hinduism.” This and the whole paragraph that follows is almost entirely wrong. She included a lot of information from a few apostates who have been shown to be wildly biased, and she included nothing of the answers I or other members gave her. She also included none of the actual teachings of Eckankar. I thought that a bit strange. I guess it’s really just more about her, under the guise of being about Eckankar. Suffice to say that having an opinion is one thing, but getting so many facts incorrect is beyond the pale of decent journalism.
Rich Smith
Honolulu, HI
GOT RAW MILK?
Eliot Coleman is prescient when he notes, “I buy milk from a very successful local raw-milk dairy where the cows eat grass outdoors (as they were designed to do) and produce milk that studies have shown is far richer in many important nutrients due to the grass diet alone” [“Can Organics Save the Family Farm?,” September]. Grass-fed milk from cows and goats has higher levels of CLA, butterfat, Vitamin D, and a host of other nutrients. Unprocessed (unpasteurized) milk has a whole host of beneficial bacteria, such as acidophilus and lactobacillus, as well as antibacterial agents, or pathogenic inhibitors, including Nisin, Lactoferrin, and Lactoperoxidase. Pasteurization destroys those benefits and actually makes the milk more susceptible to pathogenic bacteria. The reason the large dairy industry constantly promotes pasteurized milk is because it covers their tracks when using sick cows in confinement settings. For a detailed look, see Dr. Ron Schmid’s book, The Untold Story of Milk, at www.drrons.com/untoldstoryofmilk.html. I applaud the way you open the door to fresh insights and would appreciate the opportunity to educate your readers further on ways to acquire healthy, nutrient-dense foods.
John Langlois
Foggy Bottom Farms
Estillfork, AL
POLICE BUSINESS
I just wanted to express my thanks for “Cover Letters I’d Like to Send” [And Now This, October 2004], notably the section about the Minneapolis police and their “lack of compliance” with basic traffic laws. It also drives me nuts that some people can get pulled over for being, say, in the wrong kind of car or some other driving infraction, but the police can misuse their privileges (not to mention being bad role models to the young people of the city). The part about endorsing a guitar would be great, too.
Christopher Audette
St. Paul
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