Whole Life Times: We’re Giving it Away

September 2007 | Letters from Readers

We’re Giving it Away

I had the pleasure for the first time of visiting the city about one month ago and happened to pick up a copy of your magazine. I loved it! Is there any way I can obtain copies each month to be sent to me?
— Jo Salvatore, Brisbane, Australia

I just recently discovered your magazine. It is wonderful, and you seem to care about real issues that impact people’s lives. Please send me a free subscription. Thank you so much.
— David Blankenship, Washington

Editor’s note: David, done and done! Expect your first issue to arrive next month! Jo, unfortunately, our subscription drive is limited to U.S. residents only — but you can always keep up with our content (or sign up your friends in the states for a free subscription) here .

All That We Can Bee
I have read with great interest the recent articles on bees and on energy conservation. Thank you for what has become a first-rate “alternative” magazine.
— Maria Abdin, Seattle

I thoroughly enjoyed the “buzz” from your recent article on honeybees and urban hives (July, ’07). It was refreshing and exciting to learn what’s happening as there’s been so much attention placed on the demise of bee colonies across the United States. I found equal parts of relief and inspiration in reading how others are making big differences in small ways. Thank you for the well-written and timely article.
— Sheryl Wiser, Seattle

Organic Panic
The article “How Green Is Your Diet?” in July’s issue contained a serious error. Tyghe Trimble incorrectly states that if a product says “USDA Organic,” then it “is made with 100 percent organic ingredients.” If you visit the National Organic Program website, it states that the USDA organic label may indicate either of two possibilities — 95 percent organic or 100 percent organic. If a product truly is 100 percent organic, the label is allowed to state this explicitly as “100% Organic.” Even then, it does not mean no non-organic substances were used. The website is an easy read; read it yourself and see how many exceptions there are. Even organic dairy cows can be raised non-organically for the first six months of gestation, inside mothers being fed genetically modified animal feed (which is what most animal feed is now) before being converted to organic production. No one wants us to know how bad the situation is, and even Whole Foods has incorrectly stated on their new organic cheese line that no non-organic ingredients are allowed in organic food. Actually, non-organic ingredients are allowed, and they can still be called organic (as in the example for dairy cows). I encourage readers to visit the NOP’s website at ams.usda.gov/NOP/ and get informed.
— Serena Campbell

Editor’s note: You are exactly right, Serena, and we regret the error. To complicate the organic question even further, see our story in this issue on the 38 non-organic ingredients recently proposed by the USDA to be included under the organic label.

Grumpy Old Thesaurus-Loving Bastard
I found your article on millennials (July, ’07) to be myopic at best and the approbation given to 20-somethings indulgent. As a 40-something “boomer” who opted not to breed, I cannot but regard millennials without the deepest suspicion and despair. My more than frequent and unavoidable interaction with California Bay Area 20-somethings (mostly Berkeley students and some West Oakland youths to be exact) leaves me distinctly unimpressed.

Yes, they have been afforded, for the most part, far more opportunity than their counterparts in many, many parts of the world. They have more spending power than most, are more educated, may have fewer hang-ups and have greater access (through the internet) to more possibility than they can ever possibly hope to quarry.

They are also ill-mannered, ungracious, churlish and seem to favor scurrilous, strident and jejune predilections. At restaurants, on public transit and in public spaces in general, one is (again unavoidably) privy to cell-phone conversation that is self-absorbed and inane. Civility, politeness and courtesy do not figure into their iPod insulation. In-class, they surf, chat or play games on their laptops and are slave to their cell phones, disregarding lecturers and classmates. For all their techno-connectedness they have never been more disconnected from life around them.
— “Grumpy Old Bastard,” via email

You and Tom Cruise
I was struck by the juxtaposition of the Ello Perfido front cover (and his commentary on pg. 66) in the July issue and the U.S. psychological culture embodied in the ad on the back cover. Consider this quote: “People are itchy and lost and bored and stressed and quick to jump at any fix. Why is there such a vast self-help industry in this country? Why do all these selves need help? They have been deprived of something by our psychological culture. They have been deprived of the sense that there is something else in life, some purpose that has come with them into the world.” — James Hillman, We Have Had One Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World Keeps Getting Worse and Worse.
— Roland James, via email

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