Letters to the Editor
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To the editor,
Every year Nancy and I start vegetables indoors in little cups. Within a few months we take them outside to plant. We have gotten very good at nurturing our plants from sprouting to harvesting. And, come planting time, we love the fact that we chose exactly which vegetables to grow and are not limited to what some store business plan decided is best. Our vegetable garden gets better every year.
Sometimes it seems attractive to have a neighbor take care of our seedlings if we want to take a little vacation.
Doing this, however, has produced some unfortunate outcomes and even one disaster.
When we are totally responsible for the garden plan, budgeting, growing, and planting, the outcome is always best.
Similarly, our nation has a plan called the Constitution. In Article Two Section Eight it states that the Congress will be responsible for decisions of war and peace and for the funding of those decisions. Outsourcing congress’s responsibility can lead to poor outcomes and even disaster. Let’s stick to the plan.
For the good of our nation’s harvest, Congress should take back its constitutionally delegated authority by supporting “Repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force” (HR 1274).
Jeremy Street
Cheney, Wash.
To the editor,
A Nigerian Christmas. Nigerian Christians celebrate Christmas in special ways. If possible, most return to the village of their ancestors, even those living abroad. Beginning early on Christmas day, goats are brought to slaughter, and then the cooking and feasting begins. Children are all around, and there is a competition among grandmothers as to which “compound” is the noisiest, i.e. has the most people returning for the celebration. The day is spent in attending church, feasting, visiting, discussing and arguing various topics including politics. Presents are for the children, who are each given a set of new clothes, which are worn joyously around for everyone to see. Enter an American woman (Mama Ude), who thinks children should have toys as Christmas gifts–sharing her tradition. She arrives at the village with fanfare, as children run out to glimpse the homemade cake and toys she (Santa) has brought. One Christmas she brought a bag full of 20-cent rubber balls to share. The children played games with those balls until late in the evening–so happy and pleased to have some cake, a ball, a new outfit and friends and family. What we are grateful for and what makes us happy certainly varies from culture to culture.
Nancy Street (Mama Ude)
Cheney, Wash.
