Practice what you preach; leave spirituality
undefined
For all his ranting about the lack of critical thinking by those
who identify with some sort of spirituality (“Spirituality
Misleading, Irrational,” May 9), Jeff Peoples seems to have
forgotten how to apply a critical lens to his own work.
He begins by admitting the difficulties in defining
spirituality, yet quickly fabricates his own motivated definition.
Then by some stroke of staggering statistical ignorance, he uses
his puny and mysterious sample of sources to apply a concrete
meaning to an abstract term which admittedly eludes definition.
I am not so bold as to extrapolate my own definition of
spirituality to apply to the rest of the world, but given
Peoples’ own vague characterization of spirituality as a term
often used to express “solidarity with humanity,”
spirituality should not be thrown into “the category of
irrational belief,” as he claims.
In the future, I urge Peoples to heed his own advice and think
critically before offering such a poorly rendered blanket attack of
any term as nebulous and subjective as
“spirituality.”
Aaron Slosberg Fourth-year, history and religious
studies
Farmers’ markets shouldn’t be
sacrificed
I found Tuesday’s paper to be very ironic. Apparently,
while Los Angeles wants to overly tax farmers’ markets
(“City fees may threaten farmers’ markets,” News,
May 10), they were able to open a new library (“New library
branch opens in Village,” News, May 10).
I am glad to see a library open in Westwood, but don’t
farmers’ markets already have an uphill battle? The Westwood
market lost half of its venue to construction, and now it’s
faced with a fine that will hurt the city in the long run. While I
understand the importance of the city finding ways to make money,
taxing the farmers’ markets is not the way to go.
Let’s work as a campus community to save the
farmers’ markets in Los Angeles. The first step is to find
out more (read it at www.farmersmarket.org).Second, voice your
opinion by contacting Councilmember Jack Weiss, who was recently
elected to represent us. You can also join the California Student
Sustainability Coalition to help protect the markets.
Dorothy Le Coordinator, California Student
Sustainability Coalition