Your Views for December 5

Saving lives

The picture on page A5 in the Sunday, Nov. 30, Tribune-Herald shows a devastated papaya field with all the papaya trees knocked down. Are you sure they weren’t cut down by the anti-GMO crowd? You know how mad they get when they see a healthy, non-bug-ridden papaya tree.

By the way, kudos to the judge for cutting down the anti-GMO law.

Question: How many people have died from GMO plants? Answer: None.

Question: How many people have died from GMO activists? Answer: Perhaps millions in Third World countries because of vitamin “A” deficiency — VAD — that could be fixed with the use of Golden Rice, a GMO product. Google “Golden Rice” and make up your own mind.

It’s easy to complain about GMO plants when you are well fed and have available a balanced diet, but when your main and only meal is plain rice that lacks vitamin A, with VAD causing increased mortality and vision issues, the GMO Golden Rice project makes sense.

Roger Schweitzer

Volcano

Pilgrims not that different

Regarding the recent letter, “Digital holiday” (Your Views, Tribune-Herald), I agree with Richard Dinges as to the lamentable overshadowing of face-to-face conversation by the digital variety. But I am from Boston, and I doubt the Pilgrims would have lost much sleep.

They were good people, but not much different than your next-door neighbor — except, thanks to Squanto, they ate corn dogs instead of loco mocos. Otherwise, they would have eaten each other. Like us, they used technology to extend their ability to communicate.

Factoid: Myles Standish is said to have used a semaphore to touch base with the Mayflower, which still sat in Plymouth harbor with a busted rudder.

Before you academic types get all “hu-hu,” remember we still do a lot of flag-waving today, and anyway you’re from out of state.

For example, you probably don’t know that Squanto once had a one-eyed dog named Squinto. For further details read my blog, Squanto and Pocahontas, at www.grayghost100.com.

Bob Stimson

Hilo