‘Commentary’ Archives
FAKE NEWS SENT TO THE EDITOR: Conjecture, opinion, and prejudice
The Alley Newspaper has a firm policy excluding the printing of Letters to the Editor that are not signed. In May an ANONYMOUS packet of papers was sent to the Editor. The Alley Newspaper is choosing to acknowledge receipt of these papers albeit with a label of FAKE NEWS/propaganda/revisionist history. We believe it is important to acknowledge this repudiation of truth so that we realize the task at hand and its complexities in the 21st Century. See Spirit of Phillips cartoons with his quotes from the 19th Century about Freedom, Truth, and History. He lays bare “half of history is loose conjecture and much of the rest is the writer”'s opinion;” and “most men see facts not with their eyes but with their prejudices.” The contents of the papers received bear witness to the words of Wendell Phillips in the mid 800”'s. We assume the sender is aware of the absurdity of the pages sent or they wouldn”'t omit their name. We hope the sender has the [...]
Birthing the Seed
Largest Black Bean ever? Sacred to some Native American Tribes & regarded as “poor man”'s meat” beans are rich in protein, supplying 1/3 of the essential amino acids to the corn, bean and squash trinity. By Peter Molenaar Two seasons ago, amidst the typically mottled ones, the harvest of Scarlet Runner Beans revealed two completely black seeds. In their turn, these seeds would germinate and prove to be a new mutant strain. Will the largest black bean ever grown bear my name? However, in this New World, horticultural advance must largely be credited to the practice of Native American women. This is true, because the processors of the food were also the seed savers. Her gift to us was not merely that of the various beans, but also the tomatoes, peppers, squashes, melons, potatoes, pumpkins”¦and she gave us corn! We should pity the school child who has not been introduced to teosinte, the grass from which, by her hand, corn was born. In [...]
