Letters: Michelle Obama's style, the green message
Marketplace Staff Feb 9, 2011
https://www.marketplace.org/2011/02/09/letters-michelle-obamas-style-green-message/
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: First up in letters today, my interview yesterday with Kate Betts about Michelle Obama and the power of her style.
John Welch from Santa Cruz, Calif., wrote to say we should be looking at the substance of Michelle Obama's work, like her anti-obesity campaign, not just her style.
Valencia Wood of Ellicott City, Md., says Mrs. Obama would want to recognize African-American fashion icons that came before her as well.
Valencia Wood: Such as Beverly Johnson; Kimora Lee Simmons; Diahann Carroll; Mrs. Eunice Johnson, the creator of Ebony Fashion Fair and Naomi Sims.
Our post-Super Bowl commentary on Monday about what would happen if there's a lockout in the NFL later this year brought William Davidson of Nashville, Tenn. to the phone. He didn't much care for our jab at the Detroit Lions and how no NFL season would means the generally subpar Lions wouldn't lose any games.
Let's, Mr. Davidson says, just examine the evidence from the season just past, shall we?
William Davidson: For example, the Dec. 12 game in which the Lions beat the Packers, or the next game, a win over Tampa Bay, or the next win over Miami, or the final game of the season to win over the Vikings. But hey, don't let reality stand in the way of a stale, calcified insult.
Speaking of insults, here's one: That we — the media, that is — are to blame for people having reached their limits on stories about global warming.
That was Stephanie Kauffman's reaction to our piece this week about how environmentalists are trying to get people to care.
Stephanie Kauffman: Instead of talking about what people do care about and what they are doing to effectuate change, they're talking about how people don't care and that there's this sense of apathy. And I think the sense of apathy comes from the fact that there's nothing being done about it, by our government or in the media. It hasn't been the issue that it needs to be.
We heard from Dr. John Carroll about that story as well. He practices in Milwaukee, Wis., and he figures we ought to think about planetary health the same way we think about our own health.
John Carroll: I find that people are much more likely to be motivated to address their diabetes when we talk about how they will immediately feel better. The same principle likely applies in the discussion of environment. We can focus on the positive short-term benefits of environmental initiatives, knowing that the long-term benefits come along for the ride.
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