A sample spread of marijuana ads at the back of the Reader

Childish Mayor

I’m calling in response to Mayor Falcouner’s letter, “El Niño, El Schmiño.” I wonder if he wants some French fries to go with that waah burger.

We’ve got way more pressing issues than for you to be childish like that and say you hope the whole city gets wiped off the face of the planet.

• John
• Encanto

Mostly Garbage

The Thanksgiving edition of the Reader had a few decent features — the Jerry Schad story (“Jerry Was Like a Comet”); Washington’s proclamation (advertisement, page 13); a quotation from St. Paul and the Acts (advertisement, page 12) — but 98 percent of the issue bordered on garbage. Especially the pages advertising pot.

The Reader is an instrument of degradation. Soon enough you will disappear.

• Name withheld
• via voicemail

Shaping Tomorrow’s Citizens

I loved Tom Hoang’s piece, “I Teach War” (November 12 cover story). His keen insights into war, military culture, and human nature, written in a style highlighting his humanity and humility, made it impossible to put down. The piece was heartbreaking and heartwarming.

I think Hoang greatly underestimates his value as a teacher when he says, “Teaching isn’t surgery; it isn’t as challenging nor are the stakes always as high.” I would argue the opposite; that the stakes are most certainly high: teachers influence and shape the citizens of tomorrow. Teachers must be social workers, psychologists, sociologists.

Hoang says it himself: “One of the first things..learned as teachers is to understand the context of where you teach. What are the demographics? The people’s hopes? Their challenges?” And, “It’s a profession that not only requires content and pedagogical knowledge, but awareness and sensitivity to a child’s home environment.”

All of this teachers do within a culture that continually places less value on teachers and gives them fewer resources every year to work with. Kudos to Mr. Hoang for doing the job of teaching. His students (and we) are fortunate.

• Suzy Perkins
• La Mesa

Pot Profitability

I have enjoyed the Reader since the mid-’70s. Is the cost of running the Reader profitably 20-22 pages of medical marijuana collective ads?

• Name withheld
• Oceanside

Has the DEA Lain Off?

Could you set me straight, please? In 2006, I remember watching, on the news, underground tunnels that had been exposed by the DEA. Right down the line the DEA took the Arellano family.

The Reader magazine has pages of pot shops available for people in need of medicinal marijuana. Is this a win or loss for the DEA? Did Narcotics Anonymous lose its members? What is/are the peoples’ drug of choice now? What is drug abuse considered now? Is everybody happy? Did the NA’ers and the DEA stop bothering those who chose to use marijuana?

This isn’t a sarcasm call, but one of confusion.

• Name Withheld
• City Heights