Host Tom Fudge and Producer Ana Tintocalis read your letters. Send us your thoughts at
thesedays@kpbs.org
.
TOM: Yesterday we brought you a special 2-hour program about Teens. We talked about teens and technology, teen night clubs and how the role of teenagers has changed over the years. Dan Pasternack wrote us a letter after tuning in. He had two points to make. He writes,
ANA: First EVERYTHING starts with family, and without a strong influence at home, kids WILL do drugs, have sex too young and go down a wrong path Second, while many teenagers are very oriented towards the future, many more have no interest in college, grades, or any idea of what the future holds. Most teenagers focus on their current situation, their relationships with friends and family and sexuality. From the age of 12, kids face many choices, and a lot of them can overshadow the important academic issues.
Earlier this week we talked about San Diego Mayor Sanders' plan to outsource a variety of city jobs, from trash pickup to custodial services. Dan Bachman of Serra Mesa says outsourcing makes sense in theory, but not in practice. He writes,
TOM: What usually goes wrong is the extremely poor performance of the selected private contractors. This is clearly the result of minimum bidding, or sometimes crony choices or worse in the selection process. In short, outsourcing could work if the City does a conscientious job of setting minimum performance standards for contractors during bidding, with realistic penalties for breach. This may require some work in defining exactly what is to be done, how it is done, and to what quality standards. Broad-brushing won't do, nor will simply relying on reputation and trusted endorsements.
ANA: Last Thursday we did our part to clear up some confusion about E-waste or electronic waste. This month California officials banned E-waste from state landfills -
TOM: that means you can't just throw items like batteries, TVs, computers and cell phones in the trash. Now you'll have to dispose of these items separately. These Days listener David is worried people will dump E-waste in San Diego County's backcountry. He writes,
People will dump this waste in outlying areas like Crest, where I live. They'll do it at night, they'll do it whenever they think they can get away with it. They do it now, even when this type of waste is not a problem...Imagine what will happen when lots of other trash is put on some magic list that now qualifies it for a different disposal method without convenient methods for these people to follow the edict. It's going to get dumped in MY back yard. I hate to tell you wait might happen to someone if I, or other neighbors, catch them in the act.
TOM: And finally, President George W. Bush gave his State of the Union speech about a week ago. The next day we invited the chairman of the local Democratic Party and the chairman of the local Republican Party for a spirited debate. But L. Weiss wrote us after the program to say the program a heap of political squabbling. He writes,
The entirety of the segment consisted of one of the guests agreeing with everything the President said, and the other guest disagreeing with everything the President said (guess which was which...) .This was not informative. This was not a debate. This was not even entertaining. This was two Political Hacks regurgitating their respective political rhetoric .Isn't there a way to perhaps shine some light on the subject being covered? Was anyone surprised that these guys said absolutely nothing new or interesting?
ANA: We want you to say some new or interesting. Email your letters to thesedays@kpbs.org. We may read your comments on the air, so please include the name of your home community and tell us your first and last name.
TOM: These Days is produced by Ana Tintocalis, Angela Carone, Hank Crook and senior producer Sarah Rothenfluch. Our technical director is Kurt Kohnen. Our media specialist is Nathan Gibbs. Our student assistant is Justin Lancaster and our web assistant is Ross Ching. The executive producer of These Days is John Decker. The KPBS News Director is Michael Marcotte. The These Days theme was composed and performed by Gilbert Castellanos and his band.
ANA: Enjoy the rest of the week. You've been listening to These Days on KPBS.
