Keep Our Stories Going
A Tale of Two Nations was an amazing article. I am from the Choctaw tribe and lived in Topanga for 16 years. I can relate to the story. I am in my 70s and my mother used to tell us stories of her father and mother living on the reservation. It is bittersweet, but I want to thank you for this article [as] it is always good to hear other stories.
Good luck to all the people that keep our stories going. Chi hullo Li (Suetinishu). Peace love and good health.
—Susan Sariti
Recycle Right
Hi Mountain Messenger team,
Loved Suzanne Guldimann’s piece (Recycle Right, January 25, 2019, Vol. 3, No. 1) on recycling that “scooped” the bigger news outlets on the state of recycling. I was/am a wishful recycler and recognized I was doing my bit to muck up the process by trying to recycle anything plastic.
Since then, several media outlets such as The Guardian, have revealed how bad the situation is with China, and now other countries refusing our garbage, how only 9 percent of America’s trash is now recycled, and how most mixed plastics are not recycled but going into landfills or being burned. Further, it seems that each county/waste management company also has its own methodologies.
The recent Waste Management mailer insertion for our community indicated that plastics–cartons and containers–were still accepted. I’ve also gone on their website and it’s wide/vague but that seems improbable considering the crisis.
I recognize that de-consumption and awareness of packaging when purchasing are crucial factors in reducing waste, but I’d like to know exactly what we can recycle in terms of plastic via Waste Management.
—Beth Portello
But Wait! There’s More…
It was a pleasure and a privilege to profile Ann Stalcup (“Children Travel the World In Ann Stalcup’s Books,” July 12, 2019, Vol 3, No.14). Of course, we were bound to miss a few things as we tried to document such a long and productive life, so we are pleased to have Ms Stalcup add a few more of those achievements. We only hope our readers are as impressed and inspired as we were.
Dear Editor:
The article is very impressive; someone told you a lot more about me than I had told you. I can’t help wondering who was so generous in giving you the information. A couple of things I hadn’t mentioned was that I also had a degree from Pepperdine and was nominated as Teacher of the Year four times by two principals (and so was my husband). That’s very unusual. I also didn’t mention the dance festivals. I have trouble tooting my own horn. The one you mentioned was at Topanga but I did one at my downtown school and taught all 1,650 kids to dance. Each grade did their own cultural dance. It was like commanding a war battalion. Not one teacher said a word afterwards, but boy, was it impressive!! In the ’93 fire I lost the 750 national costumes that I’d made over the years. That was a blow!
—Ann Stalcup