Regarding the Feb. 8 editorial “Bad Bunny is a free-market success story”:
If you’re an American and don’t believe Puerto Ricans are Americans, you’ve never served in the U.S. military. If you had, you would know that Puerto Ricans make up a large portion of U.S. troops. Puerto Ricans enlist at a much higher rate than mainland Americans.
Don Whisman, Stuart, Florida
We don’t have to agree with everything Bad Bunny does or stands for — I don’t — but his Super Bowl halftime show was a loud reminder to all U.S. citizens that no matter what you look like, what language you speak or where you are from, “Together we are America,” and we belong. We are a country made up of more than 340 million people from all over the world. In sharing core American values like democracy, equality, liberty, hard work, love of family and community, we unlock incredible prosperity and help individuals reach their full potential by being who they truly are. Bad Bunny’s message that being authentically Puerto Rican is fully compatible with being proudly American was unexpected from an artist who previously advanced a narrative of Puerto Rican cultural separateness and even campaigned for pro-independence politicians.
His halftime show displayed an America where everyone, with all our unique cultural and linguistic expressions, can feel proud to hold up an American flag. How can Puerto Ricans be celebrated culturally while being treated unequally within the American political and legal system? How can we include them when it’s time to defend our national security, yet ignore them when they demand an end to their subordinated political and legal status and choose full equality and democracy through statehood?
George Laws Garcia, Washington
The writer is executive director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.
Taking the sting out of pollination
We need to save many species of bees, and we have to be smart about our approach. These are two important take-homes from Dana Milbank’s Feb. 9 Health column, “Good news: We saved the bees. Now for the buzzkill.”
In Rhode Island, we’re working to get this right. In 2022, our state restricted the sale of bee-killing pesticides called neonicotinoids, which can impair baby bumblebee brains and inflict other harms. This year, our legislature is considering a bill to plant pollinator-friendly, native vegetation along roadsides, a pragmatic approach to help all pollinators.
We need it. The once-common American bumblebee can scarcely be found in our state. The regal fritillary butterfly, once a frequent flyer in our backyards, was last spotted here in 1991.
Our fingers are crossed that after implementing pollinator-friendly policies, Rhode Island’s native pollinators will again thrive, and those not seen in recent years will return.
Rex Wilmouth, Coventry, Rhode Island
The writer is director of Environment Rhode Island.
Good news: Dana Milbank learned a lesson about humility. Bad news: He learned the wrong one. His essay elaborated on the many ways we should be focusing on native bees rather than the introduced honeybees. He then wrote, “The mistakes are humbling, for in spite of all our scientific progress we realize how little we know.”
But scientists do not need this lesson. Our career relies on the fact that there is much we do not know, and facing that is how we occupy our days. Further, scientists — never mind advocacy groups — have known all of this about honeybees for decades.
Frank Stearns, Washington
The writer is a biology professor at Stevenson University.
Not all knees are the bees’
Gretchen Reynolds reported in her Feb. 9 Health column, “Healthy aging secrets from an 82-year-old ultra runner,” that world-record-holding Juan López García went under extensive testing by scientists in Europe: “The researchers found that López García has the highest aerobic fitness recorded in an octogenarian, matching that of healthy 20-to-30-year-old men.” But their focus on factors like oxygen absorption in his muscles ignored the main parameter defining whether an older person is able to run: healthy knees.
I played soccer in my youth and later took up running. That ended after two meniscus tears in my left knee, one while running and one while working in the garden, and two meniscus surgeries in my right knee. The meniscus is the shock absorber in the knee, and with age it loses flexibility and is prone to tearing with a wrong movement.
I was 67 when I had to stop running. López García was 66 when he started running. Assertions that it’s “never too late” to start running, as the scientists concluded from studying López García, are irresponsible. By their 60s, many people already need knee replacements.
Arno Farber, Fort Myers, Florida
Better than ‘best in show’
Regarding the Feb. 6 Style article “Who’s a good girl? At Westminster, it was Penny, a Doberman pinscher.”:
A Doberman may have been crowned “best in show,” but the entire concept of this competition is the worst. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show doesn’t celebrate health, joy or companionship. It rewards a look. Judges grade animals against an American Kennel Club “breed standard,” a human-made blueprint that has helped normalize extreme traits and dangerous inbreeding. Though Dobermans are often described as sleek and strong, the breed is also predisposed to serious inherited conditions, including dilated cardiomyopathy — a heart disease that can kill without warning.
When dog shows elevate a certain “ideal,” they fuel demand for more dogs bred to match that image, even when the price is shortened lives and preventable suffering. Meanwhile, shelters across the country are overflowing with animals — purebreds included — who will never get a ribbon or even a chance.
Let’s stop treating dogs like customizable commodities and start celebrating the ones waiting behind shelter doors. After all, the real “best in show” is the dog you adopt into your family.
Rebecca Libauskas, Norfolk
The writer is a staff member at the PETA Foundation.
The best show
Auguri to Italy on the Winter Olympics. The Opening Ceremonies reminded me of the Beatles when they arrived in New York 62 Februarys ago. Happy, cheeky, smart and totally comfortable with themselves. With the theme and sincere expressions of harmony — armonia, in the language of the Olympic hosts — John Lennon would approve.
Sallie McElrath, Hyattsville
Following the Feb. 1 letters package “Flirting is trickier than ever. Here’s how to approach it.,” Post Opinions wants to know: How soon do you bring up politics when getting to know someone? Is a first date too soon? Share your response, and it might be published as a letter to the editor. wapo.st/discuss_politics
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