4.20.2007

Tainted pet foods = tarnished pet food industry

With rice and corn products now found to be contaminated with melamine, along with the wheat gluten, and this becomes more and more alarming, it now seems as if the only solution is for all of us to make our own pet food, thereby not only keeping our pets safe, but also creating an incidental boycott of all pet food companies. The burden of responsibility needs to be put on them to test and inspect their ingredients much more carefully and be able to assure us of the safety of their products.

There are estimated to be 68 million cats and dogs in the United States. It would not take very long for the economic impact of a boycott, resulting in our collective need to keep our pets safe, to wake up every pet food manufacturer who will in turn demand better quality control from their distributors.

4.17.2007

Prayers to the families and friends of those killed at Virginia Tech

Like everyone else, I can't find the words to express my horror, sadness and outrage at yesterday's events at Virginia Tech. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy - the parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and friends of the victims; the faculty, students, staff and alumni of Virginia Tech, and the people of Blacksburg.

I heard on NPR this afternoon that Korean-Americans are worried about possible violence against them and their community.

I pray too that this does not happen.

The gunman was a very disturbed young man who just happened to be Korean.

Most of the mass murders and shooting sprees in this country have been by crazy white men yet there are no attacks or threats of violence against them individually or as a group in the aftermaths of any of the other mass horrors.


This brings back very dark memories of the shootings 15 years ago at my beloved University of Iowa. I had spent three years there as a graduate student and was preparing to return. The gunman was a Chinese student who shot six people, killing five including four Physics professors, one of them the husband of a friend of mine. He also left a beautiful young woman paralyzed from the neck down. The Chinese community was not blamed or punished for this nor were Chinese students victims of violence or harassment.

With deepest sympathy and hope for healing.