Photo by Andy Boyd

We Can Learn a Lot from War

Please invite Mr. Tam Hoang back to write about his adventures in education. “I Teach War” (November 19 cover story) is the best piece I’ve read all year! Sure, it was timely (for Veteran’s Day), but it really illuminated an American zeitgeist of war for the past four decades!

I may be biased, growing up indoctrinated on Rambo and post-Vietnam hangover of the ’80s. I did thoroughly enjoy the nostalgia from the viewpoint of a first generation Vietnamese-American.

Full disclosure: I taught English while living abroad in Vietnam a decade ago, so I share a kinship with Mr. Hoang — albeit, in a country long since removed from the American Military Industrial Complex’s influence, my experience was the converse to his. In modernday (post-war) Vietnam they put a premium on educating their young. Meanwhile, another generation of American kids grows up amidst the backdrop of a vague, perpetual war in a country where education is a roulette wheel for educators when the ball drops places as disparate as Compton and Coronado.

What’s more, now more than ever, how impressive is it that a refugee immigrant can make such a positive impact on American communities considering the very recent backlash against war-torn refugees and immigrants. We certainly can learn a lot from war, and so I’m glad Mr. Hoang does such a great job teaching through it.

• Al Hodges
• Bay Park

Greed, Money, and Power

We usually talk about how corrupt the system is in Mexico, and then we have many cases right here in the once-good ol’ U.S.A. It’s a shame how greed and money work on too many people.

This story reminds me of a recent case involving the second DUI of one of our county prosecutors. It was the second time in two years that she got a DUI with a blood-alcohol level well above three times the 0.08 limit. She didn’t spend any time in jail. And the spokesperson for the CHP said that’s not uncommon.

Tell that to the thousands of people who get a DUI in San Diego County and do spend time in jail. I am surprised that MADD isn’t all over this case. It’s truly sad that this doesn’t amaze us anymore.

It’s important who you are and how much money and power you have.

• Name withheld
• via email

Blame Mother Nature

Well, it’s about time someone ignored the Sierra Club. The new green is the old red (Marxism for those of you from Rio Linda).

Let me be very clear. The tree-hugging environmentalist whackos known as the Sierra Club wont be happy until gas is $20 a gallon and you’re living in a teepee with no heat, no job, no food, no car, no anything. These people should put their ideology into reality. When it’s ten degrees below zero, shut off your heaters. Freeze for your cause.

Back in the ’70’s, ignorant tree huggers said global cooling is coming. Now, the same ignorant tree huggers are saying global warming is coming. They claim we melted the Arctic ice 10,000 years ago, that a mile-high wall of ice was on top of North America. This mile-high wall of Arctic ice came down to present-day Chicago. It’s 100% safe to say that we didn’t melt it all.

Man’s climate change emissions are 0.003% of 0.3% (carbon dioxide) of 1% of the greenhouse gases — compared to Mother Nature being responsible for 99.997% of global warming. (Science Magazine, Nov. 5 1982: “Termites may emit large quantities of methane, carbon dioxide, and molecular hydrogen into the atmosphere.”)

Earth = 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% greenhouse gases. 97% of that is water vapor (make it rain, Al Gore), 0.3% is carbon dioxide, 0.003% of carbon dioxide is man’s contribution. So, Mother Nature is responsible for 99.997% of global warming. Or is it climate change now?

Read it, learn it, know it. Understand that bovine scatology is bovine scatology.

• A. Andrews
• via email

Rollin’

I’m noticing all these advertisements in your back pages for medical marijuana dispensaries. How ’bout a full page rolling paper to keep us all happy?

• Cheech
• Del Cerro

Best Investigative Reporters

It’s great to see Susan Luzzaro back in the Reader investigating the corrupt pals of Chula Vista with such courage and eloquence. She and Don Bauder are the best investigative reporters you’ve had. I’m really pleased.

• Gloria Foster
• via voicemail