Letters 02/21/09

Michael Lee Kobe

Kansas City, Kan.

“Kids are in the know with Elmo” (2/16, FYI) demonstrates expressly why I’d rather not have my children watch today’s dumbed-down talk on “Sesame Street.”

Elmo’s third-person, baby-talk semantics when conversing with fellow characters and those watching him is a complete disservice to young viewers. Developing minds deserve proper talk when learning about everyday activities.

Having loved “Sesame Street” when I was growing up, I looked forward to sharing such a classic with my own children. But one viewing as a new mom caused me to click off the tube and go to Amazon.com for the old-school DVDs.

Many of the show’s benefits extolled by columnist Jeneé Osterheldt still exist. Numbers, colors, and cultures are all explored in creative ways. I believe in the educational benefits of such programming, but not at the expense of diction and comprehension.

Moreover, I find it especially offensive that in its push to introduce young viewers to new languages, “Sesame Street” does not give equal consideration to proper English when scripting much of Elmo’s content.

With a modest investment in DVDs or rentals, you can share the “Sesame Street” quality of your growing years, when the characters talked to children and not down to them.

Mary Catherine Newman

Kansas City

We would like to address the scientific misconceptions presented by Brian Merrell (2/8, Letters, “Questioning evolution”). The scientific definition of “theory” is a body of rigorously tested ideas that constitute our current understanding of physical phenomena. The theory of evolution describes the unity of life through what Charles Darwin termed “descent with modification” — what we now understand as changes in gene frequencies in populations over generations.

Evolution thus does not address how life got here; it addresses the diversity of life that’s here now and how that diversity arose. The evidence of evolution is overwhelming, testable and can be seen everywhere, including in the development of bacterial antibiotic resistance.

Moreover, questioning evolution is absolutely tolerated. Questioning is the first step of the scientific method. Additionally, time is key in evolution: One substance does not suddenly produce another. Present-day biodiversity is the consequence of billions of years of progressive change. Further, cells are not inorganic (incidentally, organic compounds have formed from inorganic molecules).

Each time you jump into the air, you “celebrate” the theory of gravity. Circular logic does not substantiate this theory; only extensive and repeated testing has done so.

Assistant biology professor

Mindy Walker’s

Evolution class

Rockhurst University

Kansas City

Just about everyone is very concerned about the economy and the loss of a major portion of their savings. For those of us who grew up in the late 1930s and early ’40s, the tail end of the Depression, it looks like the twilight years will end in depression also.

The good news is look what great times we enjoyed from the early ’50s until 2008. And now we know what a challenge most of our parents faced.

Ed “Gomer” Moody

Kansas City

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