Memories of Sears’ catalog; differences in obesity rates among Southern California cities; San Francisco’s higher minimum wage

You could order it

Re “Sears, Kmart to shut up to 120 stores,” Dec. 28

Your article about the possibility of Sears going out of business brought back childhood memories of the Sears Roebuck catalog. I grew up on a small farm in South Dakota in the 1930s and ‘40s. Next to the Bible, the catalog was the most important book in our farmhouse.

That wish book was what helped supply us with basics (and once in a great while luxuries) because our town of about 200 people had only one small department store.

My family of eight pored over the catalogs for this or that. My dad looked at the farm tools. Expired, dogeared catalogs would be replaced by new ones; used catalogs would be relegated to the outhouse to see additional “service.”

So it is sad to see Sears fall into disfavor and perhaps fall by the wayside. My generation will remember its giant status in rural communities throughout America.

Gale Poppen

Ridgecrest, Calif.

Everything in moderation

Re “Two cities, one vast gap in child obesity,” Dec. 28

The disparity in obesity rates among L.A. County cities reflects one of the most troubling health trends of our time. That our nation’s most disadvantaged children are bearing the brunt of the obesity epidemic, with its attendant ill effects on health, is unjust.

Community health centers, such as the Bell Gardens Community Health Clinic featured in the article, are in a prime position to lead efforts to prevent obesity among underserved populations. Health centers have a finger on the pulse of their community, both literally and figuratively.

Local governments and health advocates should look to community health centers as vital partners in the effort to give all children the opportunity to live healthy lives.

Hugo Torres

San Marino

As someone who lives in Redondo Beach (which is adjacent to Manhattan Beach, home to the lowest childhood obesity rate in L.A. County), I can tell you that there is no shortage of overweight children and adults in Manhattan Beach.

And if you actually visit this upper-middle-class suburb, you will also discover many restaurants that serve oversized meals. We do have excellent supermarkets full of fresh produce, but there is plenty of space for junk food and alcohol.

It’s true that Manhattan Beach has some great parks; however, many of the kids using them are not thin. The only thin kids I see are the track and cross-country runners on the sidewalks, which are available to anyone who can walk.

The solution to the obesity crisis is to revive the lost art of ambulation and to renounce driving.

Steve Stillman

Redondo Beach

I get it about the divergent attitudes, income and education levels between Bell Gardens and Manhattan Beach. I grew up about 20 miles away in Atwater (before it was a “village”) and was raised (mostly) by my Spanish grandmother, who didn’t finish high school.

But on my trips with her to the grocery store, our basket was always filled with fruit, bread, vegetables, eggs and yogurt along with cookies and ice cream — everything in moderation. Exercise was taking a walk after dinner and pushing yourself away from the table when you were satisfied.

You can make poor

diet choices at any of the stores mentioned in the article, with the only difference being the fancy packaging.

Francesca Smithwick-Driver

Manhattan Beach

The Bay Area’s better wages

Re “S.F. to have highest low wage,” Business, Dec. 27

Contrary to what the American Restaurant Assn. claims, there is strong evidence that

increasing the minimum wage by moderate amounts does not kill jobs but may actually help create jobs.

San Francisco’s high minimum wage has not stopped the local economy from thriving. Increased minimum wages put extra cash in the pockets of the lowest paid, which improves their quality of life, directs more spending into the local economy and pushes businesses to find ways to increase productivity.

So, although a higher minimum wage may make life more difficult for some small businesses, research shows that it helps the overall economy.

Chris Tilly

Los Angeles

The writer is director of UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

I would expect the statistics on employment and profits in San Francisco’s restaurant and bar industry to be influenced by the city’s unusually high reliance on tourist and business spending.

Tourists spending “vacation” dollars tend to be more extravagant on what they are willing to pay for the San Francisco experience; dotcom spending sprees on nights out are growing with the industry.

San Francisco isn’t the best model for linking high minimum wages to lower unemployment rates.

Stephen Spurgeon

Kentfield, Calif.

Fighting for the Republican Party

Re “What? Now I’m the bad guy?,” Opinion, Dec. 27

Jonah Goldberg says he and the “conservative establishment” are under fire from right-wing extremists. He and the Republican Party are getting what they deserve.

They embraced the anti-science, anti-tax, anti-government attacks by tea partyers against Democrats, and now they are feeling what it’s like to be a target.

Goldberg defends the GOP establishment by saying it “has become vastly more conservative over the last two decades,” which explains much more than he thinks.

Pat Ormsbee

Newport Beach

Goldberg’s column reminds me of the Jay Leno routine “What did you think would happen?” There are more Republican parties than he knows what to do with, some of whom don’t approve of him.

The fragile coalition stitched together in the 1960s between the traditional Republican Party and the Dixiecrats,

disaffected by the Voting Rights Act and operating under such banners as “moral majority,” “social conservatives” and “family values,” is finally coming apart.

Favorite issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, gun rights and religion are not favored by the traditional, business-oriented Republican

establishment.

In a nutshell, when you cynically exploit the differences between people to capture their votes and they end up unable to unite behind anyone, “What did you think would happen?”

Jack Widmark

San Pedro

Gaps in history

Re “Ethnic classes ruled illegal,” Dec. 28

The article about Tucson’s ethnic-studies program states, “The program’s opponents — led by [John Huppenthal], a veteran state senator elected superintendent of public instruction last year — say that by framing historical events in racial terms, the teachers promote groupthink and victimhood.”

So the idea is to exclude historical events that are framed in terms of race? Does that mean that a high school civics class that has a section on the history of American law can’t teach the Dred Scott decision, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Act, Mendez vs. Westminster, Loving vs. Virginia or the 14th and 15th amendments?

High school kids in Tucson should rejoice. Their U.S. civics textbooks are going to be about two pounds lighter once all the material that “frames historical events in racial terms” is removed.

Adreana Langston

Long Beach

Cry him a river

Re “N. Korea holds funeral for Kim,” Dec. 28

The spectacle of the supposed North Korean masses’ ritualistic mourning of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il recalls nothing so much as Oscar Wilde’s famous quip on the death of Little Nell in Charles Dickens’ “Old Curiosity Shop”:

“You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.”

Dean Altizer

Los Angeles