Letters to the Editor: Longtime fan seeks clarity on basketball tactics
3-pointer? Why?
I graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1969 and have been a fan for decades. But can somebody please help me understand today’s basketball tactics? If you only need one point to win a game during regulation time, why would you shoot a three-point shot? I know you might say that the other side does not expect that shot, and you should be open. But hopefully, the coach did not call for that play. The odds are against this shot even for a sharpshooter who is open. The better shot is getting under the basket and either getting fouled or making a two-point shot. I know these players have been outstanding individual athletes throughout their lives and are not afraid to take the long-distance and longer-odds shot. But what about taking a foul for the team? In order to be a good closing team, individuals must give up their individuality and fight inside the paint. I know that we won the game against Texas Tech, but I wonder why we make it so hard on ourselves.
Joseph Hinds, Florence
Learn from past
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, it was hard to imagine six million of my people murdered in a few short years. Even having gone to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and to Israel twice, understanding and imagining the horror of their daily living is unfathomable. We need to remember the LGBTQ community was singled out as well, and those with disabilities. Don’t forget the incredibly heroic many others who died trying to save them and protect them, and the millions upon millions of soldiers who died trying to stop this monstrosity. It’s a reminder to never single out a group of people. You can dislike someone for the kind of person they choose to be, but not because of the race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion of a person. Hug and show love to those different than you.
Aaron Rothke, Lexington, president of Jewish Advocacy of Kentucky, vice president of Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass
Prevention on plate
Fifty million Chinese are locked down, many countries are affected, and there are confirmed cases in the United States. These dramatic headlines announce one more epidemic caused by our abuse of animals.
Indeed, a majority of the pathogens known to infect humans originate with animals. These so-called zoonotic diseases include Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, West Nile flu, bird flu, swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS, and yellow fever. The pandemic “Spanish” flu of 1918 may have killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
Western factory farms and Asian street markets are breeding grounds for infectious diseases. Sick, crowded, highly stressed animals in close contact with raw flesh, feces, and urine provide ideal incubation media for viruses. As these microbes reach humans, they mutate to defeat the new host’s immune system, then propagate on contact.
Each of us can help end these deadly pandemics by replacing animal products in our diet with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. These foods don’t carry flu viruses or government warning labels and are touted by every major health advocacy organization.
Lawrence Hoffman, Lexington
Treat Earth kindly
I have realized that in my limited time here on Earth that the real heroes are those who are working diligently to halt the destruction of this planet, as opposed to those who create weapons manufactured to destroy it or desecrate its wonders via pollution, etc.
To disrupt the natural order of life due to the expense of a lavish lifestyle is not only the basis of greed but the absence of forethought about how we will leave this place for future generations to live on, enjoy, and prosper.
A Cree Indian proverb laments that “only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
It is much to my chagrin that my generation will leave this isolated planet worse off (in a geological fraction of time) then when we inherited it from our forefathers.
Who stops to picture the world 50, 100, 1,000 or more years into the future? Today, greed and pleasure are vastly more important than treating Earth with the tender care she well deserves.
Robert Hoeller, Lexington