Letters

Should We All Be Vegetarians?

"Being a vegetarian is a win-win situation. The animals win; the environment wins; and people win by living healthier, longer lives." SHERRILL DURBIN Mounds, Okla.

Thank you for a very evenhanded, intelligent report on the trend toward vegetarian and vegan diets [HEALTH, July 15]. It's encouraging to see that, whether out of compassion for animals or a concern for their own health (or both), people are starting to realize that it doesn't pay to eat too far up on the food chain. Meat needn't be what is for dinner. Factory farming is barbaric and cruel. Every person who reduces the use of animals in his or her life is performing a lifesaving act. LAURIE ULRICH Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

Why praise food extremists like vegetarians? Our planet offers such diversity in available foods, it seems almost rude not to better our bodies with variety. Eat your steak, and have your broccoli too. Variety is the spice of life. DAREN SCHUETTPELZ Ellensburg, Wash.

I'm ready to be a vegetarian, but America's farmers, food producers, restaurants and supermarkets are not prepared to support me. It's much easier and less expensive to get a hamburger at McDonald's or Chinese takeout or a roast chicken from the supermarket than it is to take the time to shop for, assemble and cook a tasty, nutritious and fulfilling vegetarian meal. JEFF BRENNER New York City

I've heard another term for pesco-pollo-vegetarians: beady-eyed vegetarians. Basically, they'll eat things with beady eyes (lobster, fish, chicken) but not with big, sad, Bambi eyes (cows, lambs). This definition sounds flaky, but a friend of mine explained it by saying he would eat only things he thought he could kill himself. He figures he can kill a fish but not a cow. That seems like a more honest and consistent rationale than some of the others I've heard. ROD STEPHENS Boulder, Colo.

I have been an ethical vegan for more than 10 years and have found that there is great misunderstanding about vegan principles in our society. While some vegetarians and vegans abstain from animals as a matter of health, we ethical vegans don't want other animals to live for us, nor do we want other animals to die for us, as they do for food, clothing and wasteful scientific research. All animals live for their own sake, not for mine. JERRY FRIEDMAN Los Angeles

Why do some people think animals and human beings are the same? In my opinion, a human life is worth a lot more than an animal's. We must stop thinking of meat eaters as killers. Vegetarians also kill vegetable life. Is there any difference? Eat vegetables and meat; both help you to be healthy and allow you to have all the nutrients your body needs. ENRIQUE S. LORES Mexico City

I'm a second-generation vegetarian. My mom is an 87-year-old vegetarian who still works out daily. All her friends who used to make fun of her diet are, sadly, no longer with us. JANE DORAN Marina del Rey, Calif.

While we are quite rightly opposed to the death of creatures for the purpose of feeding a gluttonous North American society, it is the method employed in the raising of animals that is equally, if not more, objectionable. In fact, for factory-farmed animals, death must be a happy release from a life of sheer misery. JUDITH SEEDHOUSE Burnaby, B.C.

The answer to your question "Should You Be a Vegetarian?" is most definitely yes! A vegetarian diet is healthier. Our ancestors obviously would not have survived had they not been carnivores, but there is no nutritional argument for meat eating today. Vegetarianism is truly an evolutionary step forward. JAMES L. HARDEMAN, M.D. Fullerton, Calif.

After listening to vegetarians who argue for sparing the lives of animals, I have to ask, Why is eating a live oyster a greater crime than eating a live broccoli stalk plucked from the garden bed? JOHN LASKAS SR. Media, Pa.

How One Airport Copes

I could not agree more with your assessment of Denver International Airport as the best-run airport in the U.S. [AIRPORT SECURITY, July 15]. I recently had the pleasure of catching a flight out of there. In addition to being extremely thorough, every single employee I encountered was very nice. My ID and ticket were checked three times, and agents actually looked at my face and my picture. Agents asked me where I was from and where I was going. I did not feel as though I was being interrogated, as much as I felt I was being engaged in a friendly conversation. Seeing the folks at DIA smiling and thanking passengers has restored my faith in flying. REBECCA HALL Pittsburgh, Pa.

We can't achieve perfect airport security, but we can come much closer to it than the apologists for random searches would have us believe. The proof is that for years there have been no successful hijackings of Israeli airliners. As one Israeli airport official put it, "Americans look for weapons. We look for terrorists." Israelis truly profile, and profiling works. ILYA TAYTSLIN Boston

You said Denver is America's best-run airport, but it's still not good enough. Why? The numerous checkpoints, the random searches of infants and grandmothers and the constant scrutiny are more than enough. No matter how much security is in place, there will always be people who will stop at nothing to destroy our liberty. What's next, setting up metal detectors outside every citizen's front door? CHAIM THEIL New York City

To read that the aviation manager of Denver International is driving to his holiday destination in the Tetons made me uneasy and told me more about airport security than anything else. MAUREEN CHRISTIANSON San Antonio, Texas

Is This Man a Danger?

It may indeed be difficult to pin a precise psychiatric diagnosis on involuntarily committed mental patient Rodney Yoder [TIME IN DEPTH, July 15], but do we need to? The law is clear that if a patient represents a danger to others, we are required to commit that patient, period. We psychiatrists are always going to be criticized when a person who ends up being a threat to others appears at first evaluation to have a treatable, nonthreatening condition. If you're wondering why there may be many patients locked up who shouldn't be, blame it on those of us who are trying our best to protect the public from that one patient who should be confined. MARC NESPOLI, M.D. Boston

You included the statements of psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, who argues that psychiatry uses the assertion of mental illness to control undesirable or bizarre behavior. Thousands of former mental patients agree with Szasz's position. Together, Szasz, the bad boy of psychiatry, and Yoder, the bad inmate of the Chester Mental Health Center, might bring the house of cards down once and for all on psychiatry. History will view the Yoder trial as the trial of the century: the one that evicted psychiatry and the state from the bedroom of our minds. MILLIE STROM Vancouver

Kudos for "the Kid"

Richard Corliss was right on the money in his article about baseball's Ted Williams [APPRECIATION, July 15], my choice as the greatest hitter ever. To do what the Splendid Splinter did over a long career is probably something that will never be repeated. As great a ballplayer as he was, though, he was an even greater American citizen. When his country needed him, he didn't shirk his duty, flying combat missions in two wars. The word hero is thrown around so much now that it has lost its true meaning. However, in the case of Williams, hero says it all. PAUL ROSKOWSKI Oviedo, Fla.

One day someone in the major leagues will bat .406 again but never in as dramatic a fashion as Williams did: hitting 6 for 8 in a season-ending doubleheader. The Splendid Splinter was, indeed, splendid. MEL TANSILL Catonsville, Md.

Apocalypse Then

The basic difference between preterists and the futurists who believe in the theories of the Left Behind book series [SOCIETY, July 1] is that the futurists deny or ignore the clear time statements of the Bible. The last days were simply the last days of the old Jewish covenant, which ended forever in A.D. 70. Preterists take God's word to mean what it says, leaving it in its 1st century context. More information is available at www.lighthouseworldministries.com JOHN ANDERSON, PRESIDENT Lighthouse World Ministries Sparta, N.C.