As a flower shop owner I prefer buying in the U.S., but my hands are tied because most flowers are imported. Let’s turn the tables and build geothermal greenhouses to produce our flowers at home.
Ginny Ingels
Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
Homegrown Blooms
If buying flowers grown on U.S. farms from neighborhood florists “seems increasingly quaint” [“Flower Power”], it is no more quaint than buying an ink and paper magazine in order to read an article about flowers. If our intent is to race to the bottom, then I guess we should mindlessly buy the industrially produced grocery store flower arrangements and ignore the “quaint” neighborhood florists who buy flowers locally and support their community. I would suggest an article that focuses on the responsible “green” alternatives of the floral industry instead of wringing our hands and doing nothing.
Eric Gustafson
Bellingham, Washington
Writer John McQuaid rightly notes in “Flower Power” that heavy water consumption by the cut-flower industry has created water shortages in Colombia. I would like to add that, in fact, any export of fresh produce is to a large extent an export of water. Thus it is a problem not only for flower-exporting regions but also for the production of fruits and vegetables in dry climates such as Southern California or Israel. Both areas have lost species because of the depletion of the water supply and agricultural expansion.
David Campbell
Ithaca, New York
Alamo Myth
Once again, mythology trumps full historical accuracy. In the item about the 175th anniversary of the Alamo and Texas independence from Mexico [This Month in History, “A Battle to Remember”], no mention is made of the fact that Davy Crockett and other defenders of the Alamo died for a cause lacking in nobility. A major motivation for the conflict was the Texans’ desire to own slaves. Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829, which left transplanted Americans wondering how they would keep their slaves if Mexico enforced its new law in Texas. Alamo “hero” Jim Bowie himself was a slave trader and slave smuggler. When such details are omitted, we’re left with a mythologized view of our true history.
Steven Kale
Junction City, Oregon
A Greener Warsaw
It is encouraging to see Poland ridding itself of the terrible ghosts of the past [“Warsaw on the Rise”]. Warsaw’s building agenda is, therefore, an opportunity to incorporate alternative energy sources to reduce global warming. I hope the architects will add solar panels to those skyscrapers they are planning. Poland should also consider offshore wind turbines along the Baltic Sea coast to generate power instead of relying on Russian oil. That would be another way of distancing the country from its past.
Halina Biernacki
Lancaster, New York
Model Leader
The article “The Reluctant President,” about George Washington taking up the leadership of a new nation, is particularly timely in light of recent events in Egypt. I hope people will read it and learn from it. Understanding how a government is created and maintained is a complex undertaking. Even though George Washington was reluctant to take office, he admirably carried out his duties. This country was fortunate to have had a man who shunned self-aggrandizement. Such lessons should be disseminated around the world.
Linda Kay Rose
Delaplane, Virginia
Starry Night
The hauntingly beautiful image of Nebula M17 from the Spitzer Space Telescope [“Invisible Glory”] makes me wonder if Vincent van Gogh had somehow acquired infrared vision when he painted The Starry Night at Saint-Rémy, France.
Robert F. Alnutt
Bethesda, Maryland
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Comments (2)
Mr. Mark Zangara's response to my letter-to-the-editor this past spring in The Smithsonian Magazine is yet another example of extreme revisionist history. He argues that slavery was not the reason that Texas fought for their independence at the Alamo. Stating that the "majority" of Texans did not own slaves as proof is shallow evidence at best and absurd in the extreme. In the deep south great effort is made to disguise motives in a further effort to glamorize their culture and cultural codes are common to gloss over factual data.
In the pre-Civil War era, it was a minority of southern whites that owned slaves. That does not mean that they didn't want to. Most were just too poor to afford them.
Just like most people can't afford a $1 million dollar house doesn't mean that they don't want to own one.
Mr. Zangara's version of events in Texas' history is just another dense, ineffectual fog meant to create nobility where none exists. He, like most Texans, is simply intoxicated by all things Texas.
Posted by Steven Kale on July 3,2011 | 09:19 AM
Alamo Revisionism
Once again revisionism trumps full historical perspective. In his letter, Steven Kale claims, “A major motivation for the conflict was the Texan’s desire to own slaves.” Are people really to believe suddenly 175 years later that there was a direct cause and efect realationship between the right to own slaves and the defense of the Alamo? The reason for the defense the Alamo was noble, and had nothing to do with slavery. The cause was the protection of its inhabitants, many of whom were of Mexican or Spanish decent. The Alamo defenders were heroes. Few of the 256 Alamo inhabitants ever owned slaves. The prohibition on slavery in Mexico was barely enforced. Taxes were much more prevalent and a profitable regulation for the Government of Mexico. The vast majority of Texans were not wealthy slavewoners, they were common people wanting to be free from Mexican rule. The minority of Texans who did have slaves got around the law by renaming them “indentured servants”. The president rescinded Mexico's Constitution and suspended those freedoms guaranteed all Mexican citizens after its independence from Spain. The war was also a dispute about the territory, and similar issues to the American Revolution. The writer takes the one fact, that Bowie traded in slaves and concludes the entire Texas revolution was therefore based on slavery. This is what historian David Hacket Fischer called the "fallacy of the lonely fact" in his renouned, “Historian’s Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought.” Bowie’s partner in command, Travis was a teacher who never owned slaves. Alamo defender and former Congressman Davey Crocket was against Indian removal. He came to Texas being opposed by many back east for arguing against Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1840.
Mark Zangara
Posted by Mark Zangara on May 6,2011 | 04:44 PM