Readers write: Better help for bees, a troubling trend, no 'climate denier' as president
Letters to the editor for the April 6, 2015 weekly magazine.
Honeybees populate a comb at Honey Hill Orchard in Waterman, Ill. on June 5.
Danielle Guerra/Daily Chronicle/AP
Better help for bees
I loved the article “Give bees a chance” in the March 23 Home Forum section. But I hope it doesn’t end up resulting in the killing off of more bees. As has been reported elsewhere, plants bought at big-box stores are often loaded with neonicotinoids – part of the “wonder” pesticides that have been bred into the plants themselves. Scientific research shows that neonicotinoids are a key factor in the decline of bees.
In our community garden, we are urging gardeners to incorporate bee-friendly plants, but also to make sure that those plants do not contain neonicotinoids (we are fortunate to have several low-cost organic sources within the city of Boston). I hope your article ends up helping bees.
Janell Fiarman
Jamaica Plain, Mass.
Cartoon highlights troubling trend
The March 9 editorial cartoon showing a Republican elephant and a Democratic donkey both saying, “Government of my people, by my people & for my people,” highlights a growing problem for “maturing” societies – societies regulated and controlled by the government.
The more government regulation and control, the more people feel the need to coalesce into like-minded groups to fight for and control the governing process, to impose their collective ideals on everyone. What was originally designed as a democratically unifying process has become a divisive process. The solution is to return to more individual freedom, liberty, justice ... and responsibility.
Art Gardner
Goleta, Calif.
No ‘climate denier’ for president
The headline “Ted Cruz: Can a climate change skeptic win in 2016?” (CSMonitor.com, March 23) asks the wrong question. The real mystery is how a climate denier can be considered a legitimate candidate for our nation’s highest office.
Harriet Shugarman
Wyckoff, N.J.