Humanists and the holidays; tours of L.A. gang spots; healthcare and ‘alternative’ treatments

A seasonal display?

Re “Humanists launch a holiday campaign,” Dec. 7

As a former head of the American Humanist Assn., I am embarrassed by the organization’s rather puerile “good without God” campaign.

Advertising what humanists are for is more important than stressing what is not included in our beliefs. Mere nonbelief is negative -- and emphasizing the negative invites blowback and hinders mutual understanding and respect.

In essence, humanism is about ethics, compassion, civil liberties, religious freedom, separation of church and state, peace, women’s rights, protecting the environment, social justice, reason and science and democracy. Importantly, humanists are all for cooperating and working with Catholics, Protestants, Jews and others who share these concerns and values.

Edd Doerr
Silver Spring, Md.

I am a joy-filled Catholic, and I noted -- with unoffended bemusement and respect -- the efforts of the humanists in promoting their holiday message.

While I have a different take on God’s existence, I am thankful that all Americans enjoy freedom of speech.

The Center for Family Development in Maryland likewise has the right to its opposing opinion. However, a volunteer from that group might have made her point better by using the $14,000 that she raised for a rebuttal campaign last year to aid the homeless and hungry in her community.

Instead of competing bus ads, why don’t we all focus on doing something positive? We religious folks can join our humanist fellow citizens to help the less fortunate.

Moira Niblo Obermeyer
Laguna Niguel

Why can’t humanists make their case without referring to God? It must be that God is necessary!

J. Henson
Encino

I laughed out loud reading Catholic League President Bill Donohue’s comment that humanists have chosen to “crib off someone else’s holiday.”

Christianity has long been the Microsoft of religions -- gathering up existing traditions and re-branding them under its own banner.

Either Donohue doesn’t know of or is ignoring the Roman Saturnalia, which existed long before the birth of Christ, as well as the hugely-celebrated-in-its-time December 25th birthday of the Persian sun god Mithra.

One hopes he was making a joke, but I bet he wasn’t.

David Higgins
Los Angeles

Wow, you religious people are touchy. Just place a harmless slogan on a bus and the furor begins. Words such as “disrespect” and “indecent” fly about, and vandalism becomes an acceptable response. By contrast, I put $10 in the Salvation Army kettle and the bell ringer replies with a hearty “God bless you.” My humanist response? I smile and say, “You’re welcome.” Seems like the morally proper thing to do.

Leslie Shores
Corona

Offering tours of L.A. gang spots

Re “The ’hood as a tourist attraction,” Dec. 5

I am going to get in touch with L.A. Gang Tours to get them to do a “drive by” on the house where two of my stepchildren died due to gang activities. One son is left. Perhaps if they get there in time, he can stand on the porch and wave.

My late husband was in the same gang as his deceased sons. I bet he would turn over in his grave if he knew there was a possibility they could be exploited by this tour.

This tour will shed some light on the origins of the gang culture, but will it change anything? It could glorify a sad life some young people find glamorous.

I bet there will be a big profit for the organizers. I hope they will be monitored for accountability.

Maybe this should have been in place years ago, to create jobs that might have averted the gangs’ moneymaking ventures.

However, shining a light on bad behavior can also implicate good people who are just trying to survive.

Diana Campbell
Los Angeles

I can hear it now: “Mommy, for our vacation, can we fly to L.A. and take the Gang Tour? Timmy and I want to see where the bros smoke crack and shoot it out! Forget Disneyland -- the ‘hood is where we wanna go!”

While I can appreciate the notion of “community empowerment,” I don’t think paying $65 to take a bus tour into the bowels of what most who live in L.A. avoid like the plague has a snowball’s chance in hell of attracting many tourists.

Isn’t it bad enough that the gangsta lifestyle is glorified in movies, videos and rap music? Do we really want to make a business out of rubbing tourists’ faces in the worst poverty and degradation that Los Angeles has to offer?

Steven Hendlin
Newport Beach

The more people can relate to how the gang members feel, the more likely it is that there will be financial and thoughtful intervention.

Learning that the policy of housing covenants led to the formation of gangs is very important. Knowing that the past influences the present helps us move forward.

Shirah Vollmer
Los Angeles

A ‘natural’ benefit on the counter

Re “Defining medicine more broadly,” Dec. 6

Including dietary supplements, herbs and other “natural” products as benefits in the Senate healthcare bill would set dangerous care and cost precedents.

The FDA should subject supplement ingredients to the same safety and efficacy standards of use as current medications.

But even if supplements are shown to have health benefits, we as a society cannot afford to pay for them. Instead, there needs to be more emphasis on promoting and rewarding the benefits of lifestyle decisions such as healthy eating and exercising, and offsetting the costs of smoking, excessive alcohol and obesity through use taxes or increased insurance premiums.

Jeff Harris, MD
Malibu

There is much to be gained by expanding coverage to “alternative” providers. Many physicians are shocked to find out that nutrition counseling by registered dietitians is considered “alternative” by insurance companies.

I am a dietitian. Few of my patients receive reimbursement for my services, despite having diagnoses such as high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels. Clients suffering from severe malnutrition due to anorexia nervosa or debilitating

gastrointestinal illnesses are routinely denied coverage. When physicians are expected to diagnose and advise in just minutes per patient, there is a huge gap in education and support. Turning around the public health nightmare of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other lifestyle diseases will take more than that.

It makes no sense to only cover a diagnosis and a directive to eat better or lose weight. Knowledge is not behavior.

Bonnie Modugno
Venice

Climate theories, now and then

Re “Copenhagen’s challenge,” Editorial, Dec. 7

I date myself, but I remember the talk in the universities 30 years ago was of “global cooling” -- that man-emitted pollution was blocking the life-giving rays of the sun and consigning us to a new Ice Age.

Also, economic science was teaching all us young saps that, though we might not like the system, communism was the most stable human arrangement in history and almost by definition could not fail.

As one of those Neanderthal socialism-deniers, I remember my Schadenfreude glee at hearing reports of John Kenneth Galbraith’s depression after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Face it, true believers: Scientists -- including those who study climate change -- are human too and subject to seeing patterns in the world that confirm their social set’s fondest desires.

Zack Kircher
Los Angeles

Space travel for the consumer

Re “A giant step for space tourism,” Dec. 8

Dateline: Mojave Desert. Burt Rutan and Richard Branson roll out the VSS Enterprise, the world’s first commercial passenger spacecraft. Somewhere, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry is smiling.

David Forster
Torrance

On the eve of the Copenhagen conference, where the world is planning to save itself from the disaster of climate change, Richard Branson announces a new and unprecedented way of burning up fossil fuels at unparalleled speed and dispersing the CO2 at high altitudes.

Brilliant, Mr. Branson!

Russell K. Johnson
Los Angeles