Driving is the sad news
It was odd to read Radhika Sanghani declare that it is “sad news” that young people are not as interested in driving cars (2 February) as they were in previous generations. Sanghani’s comment appeared just a few pages after the usual devastating environment features and an article about how many young people in the UK cannot even afford decent housing. The fact that young people are not spending their few dollars on petrol, insurance and car payments is something to celebrate, and should be included in the Guardian’s good news pages.
Furthermore, in this age of climate change, it seems obvious that the fewer drivers on the road, the better. Hollywood may have convinced us that driving represented freedom. But perhaps true freedom is the ability to use one’s body – by walking, running, riding a bike – as well as collective modes of transportation, such as public transit, to get where one needs to go.
Deborah Willis
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Let’s give peace a chance
Regarding your article Koreans give peace a chance (9 February), I suggest that the recent overtures are a result of a feeling of strength. Ever since the Korean war ended in 1953, North Korea has felt threatened by war games by South Korea and the US. They think, and are probably correct, that these games are a rehearsal for a full-scale invasion of their homeland. Every exercise produces a harsh reaction and sometimes attacks from the North, which we are then told prove the antagonistic nature of the Pyongyang regime and a reason to keep applying pressure. It has also caused their fervour for nuclear weapons.
So now they feel less threatened because they are able to negotiate from strength. The arrival in South Korea of a high-level delegation from the North is a very hopeful sign; let’s see if the new overtures will lead to a more peaceful world.
David Murray
Montbrun Bocage, France
Here’s what we all can do
I appreciated the letter under the heading, Grieving for our world (2 February). I found it poetic and heartfelt. But I must point out that the last line, “There’s nothing we can do,” is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I have come to understand in my own life that grieving is a process that one can get stuck in or move through. It seems that the writer is stuck in sorrow and despair in her grief for the world. It is possible, however, to go past this to a place of acceptance of all that has happened up to the present moment and can’t be changed.
It then becomes our choice to join those who are creating a positive future by their present actions. We cannot know the power of the ripple effect. My small contribution could be what tips the balance.
Edward Butterworth
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Challenge racial prejudice
Born in Guildford in the 1940s I grew up as a white male in a climate of classism, sexism, homophobia and racism. Now 71, I recognise that vestiges of my early cultural conditioning are still in there somewhere, despite my earnest efforts to override them.
When I think of a Briton do I think of Sadiq Khan? When I think of an American do I think of Rosa Parks? Not often enough. Afua Hirsch’s sobering reminder that further progress is needed in challenging racial prejudice is timely and well-taken (2 February).
Geoffrey Thorpe
Holden, Maine, US
Freemasons’ big omission
The article on Freemasons’ lodges in Westminster (9 February), which took up a whole page, was extraordinary in its omission of a most important aspect of freemasonry: its exclusion of half the population. At one point the article states that “Anyone believing in a single deity may be admitted”. Sorry, this is not the case. Only men believing in a single deity may be admitted.
Why was it not deemed important to state that this organisation not only involves secretive networks of senior men in positions of power and authority, but that they are networks from which women are excluded? Does the Guardian not notice misogyny when it is so blatant – and so fundamental to understanding how networks of power in Britain actually operate?
Sheila Smith
Brighton, UK
Briefly
How wonderful for the Guardian to have a journalist like Simon Tisdall who is relentlessly committed to exposing the worst human atrocities, which most of us – and the so-called international community – would rather sweep under the carpet (Erdoğan risks isolation with ground assault on Kurds, 26 January).
Wendy Flannery
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
It’s a pity that Oliver Burkeman and his partner (The parenting delusion, 9 February) did not attend the same prenatal class as my wife and I. The parting words of the wonderful midwife who led the discussion were: “There are only two things I hope you have learnt. First, there are no rules; what works for one baby doesn’t work for another. Second, you will be bombarded with lots of well meaning advice; listen politely and ignore it all”.
John Honig
Kingsford, NSW, Australia