Inbox

Obesity and American Kids

I note a remarkable similarity among the children in your excellent article "Watching What They Eat": an alarming lack of supervision or structure, resulting in indiscriminate snacking and imbalanced diets [June 23]. The juvenile--obesity epidemic cannot be conquered until breakfast and dinner become daily family events with parental modeling. Raj U. Dugel, LOS ANGELES

As a physician, I believe obesity is a far greater public-health hazard than tobacco. It is associated with an increase in cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression, gastrointestinal disorders, heart failure--the list goes on. We should attack obesity exactly as we have gone after tobacco--with a national advertising campaign, more self-help groups, taxes on certain foods and the right to sue food manufacturers and restaurants. John M.R. Kuhn, WESTON, WIS.

I face several daily battles to keep junk food out of my 3-year-old daughter's mouth, and she's not the only one I'm battling. The prevailing attitude, at least in my Midwestern community, seems to be that children cannot go longer than half an hour without eating. Everywhere my daughter goes, from preschool to library story time to gymnastics class, she is bombarded with sweets, snacks and "juice" boxes containing nothing but empty calories. When society at large makes it so difficult to limit unhealthy foods, it's no wonder that we are facing an epidemic. Kimberly Muschong, MASON, MICH.

Low Blows

While bad-mouthing "swift-boating," Michael Kinsley seems to do some of his own with his suggestion that one party, the GOP, is more inclined to use this type of tactic than the other [June 23]. L. Knickerbocker, BOLIVAR, MO.

Where's the Veep?

Re "how to pick a veep": try to think outside the Beltway [June 23]. I am a 57-year-old black female. We Democrats must have a white male on the ticket with Barack Obama to guarantee a win in November because this is a white man's world. I say this with no animosity. The Veep must also be smart, handsome, Southern, military and reasonably conservative. We're on a roll. Marlene B. Feltus-Jackson, NEW ORLEANS

The Not-So-Friendly Skies

Re "mile-high club": after an aircraft accident, decisions must be made in seconds [June 23]. Do you think a flight attendant would choose to save a passenger with an attitude or someone respectful? Remember that while we are there to serve you, first and foremost, we're there to save you. Adrian Ricks, DALLAS

Disaster Readiness in N.Y.C.

"How to survive a disaster" was wrong about fire-drill requirements in New York City [June 9]. The idea that the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) opposes such drills is also false. REBNY has consistently supported mandatory, semiannual fire drills as well as evacuation drills. Owing to the danger involved in traveling down many flights of stairs and after learning of two resulting heart attacks, the industry, working with the fire department, agreed that drills shouldn't require walking all the way to the street. Instead, they would require building occupants to travel down three or four flights to an agreed-upon meeting location for further instructions. We have always supported fire and evacuation drills, while urging they be carried out in a way that reduces the potential for life-threatening injuries. Steven Spinola, President, REBNY NEW YORK CITY

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