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Oct. 25, 2012 Volume XXIII No. 43

The North Coast Journal is a weekly newspaper serving Humboldt County. Circulation: 21,000 copies distributed FREE at more than 350 locations. Mail subscriptions: $39 / 52 issues. Single back issues mailed / $2.50. Entire contents of the North Coast Journal are copyrighted. No article may be reprinted without publisher’s written permission. Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.

publisher Judy Hodgson judy@northcoastjournal.com editor Carrie Peyton Dahlberg carrie@northcoastjournal.com art director Holly Harvey production manager Carolyn Fernandez staff writer/a&e editor Bob Doran bob@northcoastjournal.com staff writer/copy editor Heidi Walters heidi@northcoastjournal.com staff writer Ryan Burns ryan@northcoastjournal.com calendar editor Andrew Goff calendar@northcoastjournal.com editorial intern Scottie Lee Meyers contributing writers John J. Bennett, Simona Carini, Barry Evans, William S. Kowinski, Mark Shikuma, Amy Stewart graphic design/production Lynn Jones, Alana Chenevert, Drew Hyland production intern Kimberly Hodges sales manager Mike Herring mike@northcoastjournal.com advertising Colleen Hole colleen@northcoastjournal.com advertising Shane Mizer shane@northcoastjournal.com advertising Karen Sack karen@northcoastjournal.com office manager Carmen England classified assistant Sophia Dennler mail/office:

310 F St., Eureka, CA 95501 PHONE: 707 442-1400 FAX: 707 442-1401

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continued from previous page repeated on web site after web site — and all the sites were those with a political agenda and oozing polemics. Finally we come to the NCJ source, “Project Censored,” which acquired the story through Electronic Intifada. So, was the statement in the NCJ true? I cannot prove it was false, but my understanding of Israeli society, its government and its policies tells me it is not likely to be true. The source of the story is one Palestinian prisoner and a representative of a U.N. agency whose comments were taken out of context. But the important point is that you presented it as if it were true. Just because the mainstream media does not report something and alternative media does, does not mean that what the alternative media is presenting is factually correct. The first rule of good journalism: Check your sources. Nan Abrams, Eureka

Dispiriting Law Editor: Synchronicity? On Sunday Oct. 14, John Tutuska died (Blog Jammin’, Oct. 18). On sunny days, Tutuska could often be seen sitting and meditating on the sidewalk next to the Clarke Museum in Old Town. According to your obituary: “Shop owners and workers in Old Town remembered Tutuska fondly on Monday, telling stories of his thoughtfulness and spirit.” However, on Tuesday, Oct. 16, the Eureka City Council voted unanimously to make it illegal to sit or lie in public in the city’s business districts between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. Parke Bostrom, Eureka

sumption. Dwelling endlessly on plastic bags is a distraction from seeking that more hopeful, useful goal. Sonia Baur, MD, Garberville

Editor: Thanks to Mitch Trachtenberg for nudging us toward taking our own bags to the market. Unless you bake your own bread or buy high-end baked goods, it’s hard to avoid acquiring a lot of plastic bread bags. But those bags are really strong, so why not shake out the crumbs and re-use them for our groceries? They will last for several years of shopping. They’re perfect containers for loose pieces of fruit or vegetables, wet lettuce and bulk goods like grains or beans, holding like items together for convenience and speed at the checkout counter. I use them until they are completely worn out and then recycle them in the store’s bin. Just be sure to blot out the old bar code completely with a solid black rectangle: Drawing a line through it is not enough, because the laser can pick up any visible code and you may find you’ve been charged for something you didn’t purchase. (Also, shop by bicycle if you can. Putting fresh produce and bulk goods into light, flexible bread bags avoids wasteful packaging, and you can then put the smaller bags together in a big reusable bag and fit that into your backpack or bike basket.) Orr Marshall, Eureka Editor: Thank you for your article on reusable vs. “single use” plastic and paper bags at the grocery store. It is more than time for people to stop throwing away “single-use” bags.

Bagging It Editor: I just loved Mitch Trachtenberg’s article about the big bag “tadoo” (“Bag by Bag,” Oct. 11). Of course we all want to do the right and good thing, and he has ferreted out the information we need to make an intelligent decision, but at 0.3 percent of the “waste-stream,” plastic bags are a minuscule part of the problem. Monopoly capitalism gallops on consuming the earth’s resources, and capitalism is a growth-model economy. Its prosperity depends on growth, which requires ever-greater consumption (and attendant waste creation) of the earth’s resources. Maybe someday we can be clever enough to devise a prosperous life which is not based on maximizing con-

6 North Coast Journal • Thursday, OCT. 25, 2012 • northcoastjournal.com

Cartoon by joel mielke

We’d like to add: First, plastic bags and paper sacks are far from being “single use.” The plastic ones can be used over and over for months before they wear out. When they won’t carry groceries, they become litter bags. Eventually we recycle them. Paper bags also last a long time, if they don’t get wet. There is no excuse to throw bags away after only one use. People in the past probably would have paid well for such useful containers. Second, it’s not a “terrifying task” to carry groceries home in a reusable bag. People have brought their own containers to market for centuries. We have been doing it almost since we moved here in 1966. Third, you don’t have to buy a cloth bag. Cardboard boxes work very well to carry groceries, especially heavy, tippy items like milk cartons. Even if the environmental cost of making one plastic bag is less than that for one cloth bag, the serious costs of plastic bags come after they’re thrown away, especially when they end up in the ocean. The cost of making the cloth bag is amortized over many years. Using a cloth bag “173 times” would take only about a year and a half (at twice a week). Any of these containers can be reused for more than just groceries. Take them to Kmart, drugstores, etc. If we all did, we’d save a lot of wear and tear on the environment and landfills. And bread bags work well for fruits and vegetables. It’s not “plastic vs. paper.” It’s reuse vs. throw away. Virginia and Jim Waters, Trinidad