Don’t Compare Bottles to Bags
To the editor:
A comparison of plastic bags and plastic bottles, as was suggested by a letter to the editor in the Aug. 20 edition [page A2], is highly inaccurate.
Plastic bottles containing water make available a product essential to health. For those visitors unable to access filtered water, or those renters unable to install a reliable filtration system, water in plastic bottles is a staple.
Furthermore, the question arises why water bottles are being singled out. Why not include the plastic packaging encasing greens, nuts, dried fruit, and so on? The problem is certainly not plastic water bottles; it is plastic, ubiquitously so.
Some plasticity of approach might be to encourage research into a material that is equally maleable, equally hermetic, and not so troublesome to the environment.
Shirley Spatz
Provincetown
On Capitalizing ‘Black’
To the editor:
I appreciate the importance and comfort of following one specific style manual for any publication. Your publication has chosen the venerable Chicago Manual of Style instead of the Associated Press Stylebook, and 99 percent of the time no one would notice or care.
But this time is different. Sometimes you just have to break with the rules and respond to the exigencies of the moment.
For all the reasons the A.P. and other major publications have finally switched to capitalizing Black when referring to a person or people of a distinct culture, in just the same way they would refer to a European or an African, so should the Provincetown Independent. As a weekly covering the news, you need to move faster than the Chicago Manual does, but I bet they get there eventually.
Nancy Kete
North Truro
Praise for an Essay
To the editor:
Deborah Ullmann’s essay, “Quahogs and Culture Change,” in the Aug. 20 Independent [page A3] is wonderful in so many ways — it paints an exquisite picture of a simpler and kinder life, of “simple gifts” that have so much meaning, of the rewards offered by Nature for hard work and jobs well done, and a recollection of Eastham at its best.
It reveals lessons for us all at this difficult time, and always.
Felice Coral
Eastham
Everyday Beauty
To the editor:
Your “Meet the Maker” column is one among many good reasons to read the Provincetown Independent. Providing a forum for the talented and committed craftsmen and women of the Outer Cape to bring readers into their world is a terrific example of what makes local journalism so special.
I especially enjoyed the column in your Aug. 13 issue written by Donna Rickman about chair caning [page A10]. Her depth of knowledge, the context she provided, and her description of the materials and techniques used heightened my appreciation for the beauty of these everyday objects.
Her story about recognizing an 1870 Chippendale chair from among a pile of chairs left at the side of the road and returning it to its glory for her son was a pure delight.
Thank you for opening up new worlds close to home.
Beth Greenspan
Newton and Wellfleet
Banish That Word
To the editor:
Regarding the violator of Truro Conservation Trust land [Aug. 20, front page]: the “N-word” has no place in our community, our town, our state, or our world.
Ellen Anthony
Truro
