McCarthy on Slaughterhouses

McCarthy’s initial point about the miserable working conditions in meat-packing plants is well taken--and well documented, Sinclair Lewis having put it much more eloquently in his book, “The Jungle.”

But when the article degenerated into a hysterical attack on all of us who mercifully don’t feel haunted by the Ghost of Chicken Past, I was struck by a thought: No doubt, civilization would be better served if McCarthy laid off of us non-vegetarians and instead used his position as a syndicated columnist for the more important goal of pressing the attack on the world’s numerous barbaric factions that we must witness slaughtering human beings every day on the front pages and on the evening news. Make yourself useful, Mr. McCarthy.

JOSEPH BISSIN

San Luis Obispo