It is always a thrill to get these kinds of emails in my mailbox! Thanks for watching and send me your feedback on our shows!

RE: Caryn West Episode, Sept 11, 2009

Rita:
Thank you for making the interview with Caryn happen. What a great show. I wholeheartedly agree that a critical problem for us in the U.S. is the waste issue. It has been for a very long time.

What needs to happen to change that is that those who don’t go out and “buy a new extension cord” every time one can’t be found, a new cell phone to keep up with the Joneses every time a new model comes out, that those who recycled their bags at the grocery store well before it was en vogue to do it (it should not take fabric bags to make doing this en vogue), etc., what needs to happen to change the wastefulness in this society is that the people who are vigilant about NOT being wasteful need to be recognized and respected for doing so, instead of being devalued for NOT being lazy and taking the time to locate the extension cord, ridiculed for “acting poor” and reusing grocery bags, ostracized for not buying into the keeping up with The Joneses mentality, etc.

I appreciate that a local person who is doing good work was broadcast and that the issues that some people worry about on a daily basis were brought to more of a “mass audience.”

Disappearances, and the associated violence, have been commonplace in Guatemala and nearby countries for decades, and it is often, if not always, related to power and politics in very disturbing and complicated ways. I don’t think the vast majority of Americans have a clue. Although, I think the violence related to the drug lords battling for territory and the fact that has happened literally right on our borders has shed a miniscule light on the atrocities that have been going on for what seems like forever. The problem is we get the numbers and a photo of the dead bodies and not much more in our mass media. Many of the other problems in other countries Caryn mentioned have been going on decades as well.

I had no idea about Fiji. What a great education!

Thank you for your excellent work!