Weekend America

Too Much Army, Too Much Home

Brendan Newnam

Shirley Shin

JANUARY 5, 2008

I'm not quite sure why Weekend America has gone "All Army All the Time." I readily agree that American military men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered, have been ill-served by their leadership, and have been treated with neglect upon coming home. But I cannot accept to hear without any questions whatsoever statements like that of Jason, a soldier with 10 years of service, who stated in your report that it was the American people who sent the troops to war and that it's now their "responsibility to bring them back and help them heal."

Jason wasn't forced to go to war. He was a volunteer who accepted a job as a soldier. I imagine that when he took that job, he knew that soldiers fight wars. I regret that he has suffered from doing his job, and that the American people should do as much as they can to help him now that he's home. But they did not send him to war; his boss sent him to war.

Marc Naimark
Paris, France

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I listen often to Weekend America, and often enjoy it, but I have to say that it is COMPLETELY FRUSTRATING that seemingly all of your home type or holiday stories are always about "the smell / taste / cloying warmth of home."

There are many people, myself included of course, who don't have homes to go to because of crazy / absent / etc., parents. But we still have stories, and often well adjusted lives. We go places on the holidays: our friends are our families.

But it is very vexing to have this HUGE swath of the population literally IGNORED by you guys. You do the occasional homeless shelter story of course, but this is different. Most people I have come across in my life have very complex and difficult relationships with their families, and these are normal everyday people.

Please consider toning down the tyranny of the endless "home and hearth stories" and include the other 75 percent of your listeners. You might gain some listeners.

Beth Herzhaft
Los Angeles, Calif.

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I was so touched by Chris and Amanda's comments today that I felt compelled to write. I am impressed by their articulate voices and the self-knowledge that they demonstrated. I understand that life has knocked them around, yet their sense of self and each other, their resilience and strength, and their appreciation of what it means to adopt and to be an adoptee, are obvious. I want to thank them for their honest comments and I want them to know that I will never forget them.

As the step-mother of an adoptee whose struggle leaves her father reeling and perplexed, because of their story, I now better understand the power of love.

Sharon Stern
Portland, Ore.

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As an American Jew who has attended the Sons of Norway Norrona Lodge Lutefisk Fest in Van Nuys, and who's eaten a goodly amount of Chinese food, I've got to say to John - give it a rest. Lutefisk is delightful. Here's the review I posted on internet site, and I hope you aren't too insulted.

"I went with a Norwegian-American friend to the lutefisk fest last year. It was fine. I liked it. It's like bacalao. It's a type of dried cod. It's soaked and the soaking removes the preserving agent of salt and/or lye. I think that it was more liked by folks in Scandinavia than here. After tasting it, I think the folks that complain about it growing up are big culinary babies. It's fine. It's fish. It's a little softer and spongier. It's very mild, served in a light butter sauce with a potato bread (lefsa) cooked potatoes and other side dishes.

I found it quite nice, a taste between sole and halibut and a texture that, if you're six, you won't like, and if you had to eat it when you were six and there were no cultural demands EVER that you grow up (like there are about buttermilk, or caviar or foie gras), then you will never like it. I'm all growed up. I liked it fine."

Jerome Vered
Los Angeles, Calif.

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