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Holiday thoughts

Food of the gods

Editor, The Times:

Maybe we should take the Thanksgiving tradition of reflection a step further this year. Maybe after enumerating the rights, privileges and luxuries we enjoy, Americans could consider how much more we have than we actually need. Or contemplate the global consequences of our unbridled enjoyment of excess.

Since food forms the centerpiece of Thanksgiving, perhaps our self-examination should begin in that department. Tired as the image has become from frequent maternal invocation, we might dwell a moment on those "children starving in Africa" before tucking into a feast that will only add inches to Americans' already bloated waistline.

We might estimate the carbon dioxide released into the overtaxed atmosphere by the transport of diverse foodstuffs to our table.

Or if famine and climate-change apocalypse seem too remote, we could focus instead on that unwilling emblem of Thanksgiving — the turkey. Looking at our extended family ranged joyfully around the stuffed carcass, we might entertain a fleeting thought of the bird's welfare. We might ask ourselves if our relish for a juicy drumstick warrants the suffering undergone by the factory-farmed animal to which that limb lately belonged.

Such meditations need induce neither melancholy nor self-loathing. They could instead prompt action: dietary moderation, social or environmental activism, the first tentative steps toward vegetarianism, even.

And maybe by next year, blessings such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be a bit more equitably distributed.

— Katharine Merow, Seattle

A victim, not a prima

When reading "A survival guide for holiday hosting" [Times, Living, Nov. 17], I was rather offended by a casual statement regarding those on the gluten-free diet — calling them "The Diva." Later on, the article does say to ask first or make accommodations for those with allergies, but I felt the original comment was rather callous.

I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, and will have been gluten-free for barely two months as of this holiday. Lots of people are affected by celiac disease and Thanksgiving is one of the hardest times for them. This is not a choice, like veganism or vegetarianism; it's a prescribed diet. Eating even the smallest bit of wheat, barley, rye or their derivatives will have serious side effects.

My parents raised me to be a gracious guest. I feel bad enough having to bring my own food this Thanksgiving, let alone inconveniencing others by having to make sure they aren't using the stuffing spoon to serve my dishes or contaminating my cheese with their crackers!

I am not adhering to this diet to be high-maintenance, rather to be healthy so I can actually enjoy the holiday. I wish more than anything that I could go into any restaurant and not have to ask about every ingredient, how it was prepared, proper handling, etc. Being singled out is hardly fun for anyone, let alone those of us who have serious consequences if we don't ask.

Perhaps a better choice would be writing an article about how to accommodate a celiac — or those with other allergies — as a guest, so that we don't have to dread every holiday season, especially when facing this sort of ignorant attitude

— Margaret Singbeil, Bellevue

No "diva" matter

I noticed "A survival guide" included people with food sensitivities in the classification of annoying people to be dealt with. I'm very sorry someone can feel that way.

Gluten sensitivity is no "diva" matter. I do suppose that it is a lifestyle choice: People allergic to peanuts make the choice not to go into anaphylaxis. So I guess I choose to not eat stuffing on Thanksgiving to avoid horrible pain. Not to mention the week of recovery.

Enough educated media are talking about celiac and gluten sensitivity that I would expect a journalist to have heard of the condition and not lump those suffering from it into a derogatory and disrespectful category of annoying house guests. If you find us so annoying, don't invite us. Or ask us to bring our own food.

Of course, the attitude that having family over for the holidays is an annoying obligation that must be tolerated is beyond my comprehension.

— Wendy Trakes, Phoenix, Ariz.

The ill and the ignorant

I was rather disturbed after reading "A survival guide for holiday hosting." One guest stereotype in particular, The Diva, is grossly unfair and inaccurate.

The piece lumped together individuals who make excessive personal requests — fresh towels — with people who are on specialized medical diets. I can understand the frustration over a guest whose requests inconvenience you for no other reason than that they prefer things done a certain way. However, I cannot understand or accept that you would open your home to people and then begrudge them that if they were to eat a certain kind of food, they would be ill for the remainder of their visit.

For those of us who live with celiac disease — a genetic autoimmune disease that attacks the small intestines — a gluten-free diet is the only course of treatment. We cannot pop a pill and eat your stuffing and pies.

Would you vilify guests who live with peanut- or lactose allergies? While they may have more immediate and outwardly visible reactions, a person with celiac can have intestinal damage that may take three to six months to heal. This can occur from just one mouthful of gluten-filled food. This damage, and the resulting malabsorption of nutrients, can lead to such long-term problems as bone density loss and lymphoma.

Please do not diminish such serious health issues by referring to them as diva tendencies.

— Shannon Mueller, Chicago, Ill.

Plans and taxes

Healthy, wealthy and wise

While I commend guest columnist Risa Lavizzo-Mourey for educating us on the complexities that underlie our health-care crisis ["More health care is not necessarily better care," guest column, Nov. 13], it is with great irony that I note one leg of her three-legged stool for health-care quality is based on public reporting.

She explains that, with the help of the Puget Sound Health Alliance, the Seattle area is at the forefront in dealing with the three fundamental issues of health care: public reporting, quality improvement and consumer engagement.

However, a quick Internet search reveals that a major participating organization in the Puget Sound Health Alliance is the Washington State Hospital Association. This is the same group that conveniently slipped a provision into a health-care bill that ended the requirement for hospitals to publicly disclose certain medical errors.

While the association has recently claimed to have changed its views on the disclosure issue, perhaps Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey was able to use her time here in Seattle to remind Washington's hospitals of the need for transparency.

— Dylan Higgins, Seattle

Voter with a vision

As did many others, I voted against the transit plan and tax. Here is what I can vote for if asked again:

1. Level of effort funding and construction. The plan has to have no bonding or other form of borrowing. Propose a moderate tax to fund needed projects. Let out small contracts in stages, with construction based upon actual tax collections.

Not one nickel should be spent on bond interest, even if it means buying only one load of concrete at a time. What wastes more money, smaller incremental contracts or long-term bond payments for non-instant gratification?

2. Each project has to be approved by the local governments affected, and everyone else should butt out. If the Eastside wants to waste its portion of the tax collections on wider freeways, that's the Eastside's business. If the west side wants to waste our portion on elevated 19th-century rail technology, that's our business.

Both are equally dumb in my book, but I might vote for our — the west side's — insanity if the price isn't too high. Monorails cost less to elevate, are dramatically less noisy and can climb hills, of which I think we might have a few.

If asked, I could also vote for long-term sea-level rise contingency and infrastructure planning. In case no one has noticed, the water is rising, and coal-fired power-plant construction is accelerating. There might be a relationship and they might impact things like Seattle transit projects.

What I can't vote for is long-term borrowing of any kind. I don't want to pay interest on projects that drives their costs upespecially when those projects may very well be under water before they are paid off.

I will also never vote to approve what looks like other communities' short-term planning — like freeways on the Eastside — and I respect their prerogative not to vote to approve what they perceive as our short-term foolishness.

Obviously, for mutually desired insanities, such as floating bridges that have one end only 10 feet above sea level, we should probably collaborate a bit.

— Craig Dupler, Seattle