To Night Cabbie: I was shown your article that was in the weekly about the "pretty goth girl" at the Hawthorne Subway [Feb. 22, 2006], and I enjoyed it because she is my grandaughter, Chelsea. I was concerned when she started working there and was closing because I didn't want her waiting on the corner for the bus that late at night. I was very relieved when I was told that she was taking cabs and had such nice lady cabbies. I am so grateful for those that watch out for her like homeless Ron and you ladies.

I was tickled about the old guy that was hitting on her. She gets really p---ed when she is hit on, but I told her that she would just have to learn to ignore it because that is going to happen as long as she looks the way she does. She was especially disgusted with him because he wanted her to "raise his kids" and she isn't overly fond of "kids."

So, thank you for being so good to my girl. She is the delight of my heart and the joy of my soul.

Susan Norsworthy
Beaverton

TEAR DOWN THE WAL

In Anthony Bianco's piece ["Wal-World", March 8, 2006], it becomes clear one of the problems in challenging Wal-Mart is vocabulary. We are presented with words such as "economy," and we are to believe that their definitions are incontrovertible.

Not so. All economies are human creations. We created them, and we can destroy and replace them. For Wal-Mart executives, as well as executives of all corporations, a strong economy is one creating an ever-increasing profit for the company, something that at best has only an ancillary relationship with traditional American values such as charity and compassion that companies like Wal-Mart systemically ignore, endorsing them only if they bring greater profits.

However, people are creating alternatives to corporate-controlled economies. For instance, we have a vibrant small-business culture in Portland, and farmers' markets abound throughout the country. Outside the country, the Venezuelan people trade their oil for doctors from Cuba and other goods from neighboring peoples.

The real bottom line is us. This is our country, and it is our economy. That we can decide what these mean is both the hard-won privilege and the responsibility of living in a free society. We can continue allowing companies like Wal-Mart free rein in lowering wages and benefits, hastening our race to the bottom. Or we can make our economy one that values humans not because they produce financial wealth for others, but because life is sacred and any system resulting in its desecration is unworthy of existence.

Peter Shaw
North Wabash Avenue

FIGHTING THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF BAD PR

I cannot believe I am sticking up for the pharmaceutical industry, by proxy, by admitting that I felt the March 1 Rogue of the Week, Hogil Pharmaceutical Corp., was a bit of a stretch for your column [WW, March 1, 2006]. I mean, you guys were really reaching for a bad guy this time. Unmerited? Sure. Why? Well, OK, universally drug companies have plenty of stink on their respective rap sheets for things like price-gouging, honing the art of keeping politicians in their pockets through unscrupulous lobbying and basically driving the elder poor into the shithole, financially speaking.

But meth is a problem, and it's spreading to so many ages throughout any given demographic. So when a company like Hogil Pharmaceutical Corp. decided to print "... and the devastating effects of Meth abuse" on their boxes, what was the real harm? They consciously made an effort to eliminate an ingredient like pseudoephedrine to not only curb someone's ability to make a very dangerous substance, but to send what I believe to be a message to consumers that, perhaps, they're aware of what is going on.

These medicine companies are business people, but also scientists and concerned doctors and medical professionals. Bottom lines are always considered. Why make Hogil a pariah just because it put some lame-sounding verbiage on a box? The fact that Hogil's donated money to perhaps smooth any wrinkles the label may have made is better than Hogil not doing a damn thing, which is what many companies would have done. Nothing.

Allen Bennett Russell
Southeast Taggart Street

PEAK INTO THE FUTURE

Portland Peak Oil is ignoring basic science and market forces while creating fears that we'll have to live like the Amish ["My Name Is Randy, and I'm Addicted to Oil," WW, Feb. 22, 2006].

The world will never run out of oil. As the cost to extract oil from politically and geologically challenging regions rises, it provides market incentives to fund the research and mass production of biofuels and hydrogen.

The cost to extract oil from tar sands and coal is economically feasible, and reserves could last for centuries.

Car manufacturers will soon introduce "plug-in" hybrids. Existing hybrids are 100 percent dependent on petroleum for power generation, while plug-in hybrids can use existing battery technology to cruise 30-50 miles. For longer trips, a plug-in hybrid converts to a gas-efficient hybrid. The cost per mile to power a car with electricity is less than gasoline. Plug-in hybrids can be combined with a biodiesel engine, resulting in a vehicle that is 100 percent petroleum-independent.

The cost of wind-generated electricity is competitive with electricity produced from traditional sources, with less impact on our environment. Investor-owned utilities aren't buying wind power to be politically correct. They are doing it because it makes economic sense. Market forces will increase our production of electricity from wind as well as solar, geothermal and biomass.

Wood stoves are a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gases in comparison to a geothermal heat pump that can also provide hot water.

Kurt Ziehlke
Lake Oswego