East End Ignorance
I feel compelled to comment on your subjective dining review (Nov. 12, LEO Weekly) regarding the closing of Seviche on Goose Creek Road. In addition to your quick reference to the owner’s reason behind closing the doors to the restaurant, it seems you felt the overwhelming self-indulgent need to add your personal point of view. If I understand the article correctly, it’s because suburbanites are all meat-loving Republicans who cannot distinguish between Latin and Mexican cuisine.
For such an open-minded, non-suburbanite like yourself, I’m surprised you’d take such a narrow view of our fair town. I live two minutes from the defunct Seviche restaurant. Just by looking at me, you may not know that:
• I lived in the Highlands for more than 20 years.
• I’m a Democrat who’s thrilled to support our first African-American president.
• I’ve traveled extensively, including in Central and South America.
• I love both Latin and Mexican food and can differentiate between the two when pressed.
• Most of my friends who live nearby — and I have relatives and friends in and out of the ’burbs — are also liberal and enjoy ethnic dining experiences.
Making such generalizations about our city’s population pockets shows that not all “conservative” thinking takes place “on the other side” of the Watterson. You may want to consider the fact that Mojito’s (Spanish/Cuban) is in the same end of town and is packed almost every night of the week.
Here is my self-indulgent opinion. While Seviche corners the market on food quality and variety, the Goose Creek location feels like just another chain. Who wants to sit outside in a parking lot and eat? It has none of the charm and only the price tag of its sister location on Bardstown Road. And although I’ve been several times, I’m unhappy to say that on several of those occasions, the service was less than adequate.
Perhaps you should give my comments some thought.
A smile crosses this well-lined, well-lived octogenarian face when I read the letters in LEO Weekly. Most are from people who pick up a pen that screams.
It makes me think back to June 1995 when I had the cover story “God of Choice” published thanks to editor John Yarmuth. It brought forth expected, angry, written/verbal responses.
For more than 30 years, I’ve written a weekly column for another publication. A Nov. 7 column brought this response: “You’re a verbal terrorist and nigger lover. You’d be happy if an atheist or fag ran for president. People like you will be responsible for another American civil war.”
The smile mentioned above appeared. I loved the letter. I don’t write to be agreed with, I write to be read.
Some insurance companies give discounts to non-smokers and non-drinkers. They should also give discounts to vegetarians, because vegetarians are far less likely to suffer from heart disease, strokes or cancer than non-vegetarians.
According to the Framingham, Mass., Heart Study, where the daily living habits of thousands of residents have been studied since 1948, vegetarians have far fewer heart attacks, strokes, cancers or diabetes.
In another study by the China-Cornell-Oxford Diet and Health Project, which collected data on the eating habits of more than 10,000 Chinese since 1983, they found that their diet of soybeans, grains and vegetables with very few animal products results in low cholesterol levels. So low that only 15 percent of the deaths in China are due to heart attack, compared to more than 40 percent in the United States.
According to the Diabetes Action and Research Education Foundation, a study of persons with Type-2 diabetes showed that with a strict vegan diet, their blood sugar levels decreased by 59 percent in only three months.
The American Cancer Society compared the dietary habits of men and found that the highest risk factors for prostate cancer are due to the consumption of meat and dairy products, and another study found that those men diagnosed with prostate cancer who adopted a vegetarian diet slowed or halted the progression of the disease.
These and other studies show that vegetarians live a much more healthy lifestyle, yet vegetarians must pay the same insurance rates as non-vegetarians, and that’s not fair.
Having grown up in a very religious family, I always heard the phrase, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” Usually I heard this when something I considered bad at the time happened. As a kid, this was not what I considered a viable reason. Now, at 39 years old, that phrase is making sense.
Last month, Barack Obama became the first person of color to be elected to the U.S. presidency. This is something most people in the world thought they would never see in this lifetime. The thing is, this monumental event would never have happened if there weren’t a George W. Bush. I was angry at the way the Bush administration stole two elections and ran this country into the ground, all to make the super-rich even richer. I questioned God for years as to how he could allow this to keep happening. At the time, I didn’t see a Barack Obama coming, but he did. I am saying all this because many of us are going through bad things and are searching for the success and happiness that we see others having right now. Often, we think the Creator has ignored or forgotten about us.
However, we don’t know the circumstances and events it will take to get us where we want to be in life. To put it another way, sometimes we have to experience the bitter before we can enjoy the sweet. A lot of people don’t accept this, but let me tell you something: Karma is real! Many people voted for the other guy not because they felt he was the better candidate, but out of pure hatred, intolerance and spite. Just remember you reap what you sow, and always remember that the Lord works in miraculous ways.
