Mayor Gray is making D.C. a better place Re: “Mayor Gray plans a resurrection,” Jan. 17
Jonetta Rose Barras has clearly run out of interesting things to say. In her latest column, she once again shows her animosity toward Mayor Gray by getting the same old quotes from people she knows have a bone to pick with him.
In a city of 617,000 residents (which has added more population than any other state since Mayor Gray’s administration began), Barras never seems to be able to find even one person who supports him. Perhaps because that would hinder her from writing columns based on her preconceived ideas of what is happening.
I, too, question some things the mayor is doing. But most of all, I question why the mayor wastes his time sitting down for an interview with Barras, who just repeats what he said and then goes ahead and bashes him anyway. For example, she prejudges the outcome of his “citizens summit” by saying how Gray doesn’t compare favorably to former Mayor Anthony Williams. Well, I recently chatted with Williams, and he thinks Mayor Gray is doing a pretty good job.
The Gray administration is moving forward on a myriad of issues and projects. The District is better off for all the work the mayor is doing.
Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington
Only environmentally friendly bags are reusable
Re: “Bag tax is all about revenue, not the environment,” From Readers, Jan. 13
Commenting on Montgomery County’s new bag law that requires retailers to charge 5 cents for both paper and plastic bags, S.P. Wassel from Arlington wrote a letter to the editor asserting that paper bags are “benign and pose no environmental threat.” This assertion couldn’t be further from the truth.
The production of both paper and plastic bags consumes enormous amounts of natural resources and causes significant pollution. Statistics indicate that each year, Americans use about 10 million paper bags and some 14 million trees are cut down annually for paper bag production. Processing tree pulp into paper uses thousands of gallons of fresh water and bleach as well as toxic chemicals, which contribute to air and water pollution. Paper that isn’t recycled and that ends up in landfills cannot completely degrade because of a lack of water, light and oxygen.
The most environmentally friendly choice when asked, “Do you want a paper or plastic bag?” is “None — I brought my own reusable bag.”
Esther Bowring
Public information officer,
Montgomery County
Only small percentage use intoxicants at Hindu festivals
Re: “Hindu pilgrims gather for festival, Jan. 12
The picture of a sadhu, or holy man, smoking marijuana on the front page of your paper is a sensationalist image that is a far cry from an accurate representation of the massive outpouring of spiritual devotion at the Magh Mela. While a small percentage have taken to the practice of smoking marijuana and consuming other intoxicants at this and other such festivals in India, it certainly is not a mainstream Hindu practice.
According to Ramdas Lamb, Ph.D., associate professor of religion at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, “The use of intoxicants by sadhus only involves a small percentage (maybe 15% at the most). The countless renunciants who do not use drugs and who are doing their spiritual practices quietly in their tents at the various holy festivals are not photographed because pictures of them are harder to obtain, are not flashy, and are thus far less likely to get published.”
Jay Kansara
Associate director,
Hindu American Foundation
Washington
