Letters: The Trip to Houma
Liane Hansen reads letters from listeners. The show's recent visit to Houma, La., prompted a great deal of response.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
Time now for your letters. Our trip to Houma, Louisiana to speak with the Mexican workers at Motivated Seafoods generated a number of them. There is no question that the United States has been and should continue to be a land of opportunity for immigrants from all parts of the world, writes Ken Jacobsen of Brookline, Massachusetts. However, it appears that there was a big point missed in Sunday's story about the Mexican women hired to fill jobs in the Louisiana oyster industry that the company is having problems filling locally.
At $5.50 an hour, the annualized wages for a worker for a 40-hour week would be $11,440.00. Since the poverty line for a family of three in Louisiana is $14.129.00, there well may be a good reason local people won't take the jobs. Clearly, they don't pay enough.
Bryant Woods of North Wilkesboro, N.C., enjoyed the segment. I appreciated the caring and respectful insight into the lives of these people, he writes, and there were tears in my eyes to hear the words of the Louisiana man describing his experience of coming to know and growing to respect these people about whom he had doubts. Great story.
Our feature on the rock band from Houma, Dead Boy and the Elephant Men, annoyed Skeeter Woodrow of League City, Texas. Please, he writes, very well produced story, but the material is lackluster. It's a story about an anywhere band anywhere in America. But Mark Riffe(ph) of Kansas City, Missouri, had a different point of view. I would never think to turn to NPR for introductions to new bands, he writes. How delighted I was to wake up Sunday morning to the Elephant Man and Dead Boy story, just a few bars of Ancient Man, and I was hooked.
Finally, many of you disagreed with Andy Trudeau's analysis of Gustavo Santaolalla's score for the film Brokeback Mountain. Andy expressed frustration that the music never came together into a clear theme. Isn't that the point of the movie? writes Rebecca Holmes of Seattle. Scattered moments of beauty in these two characters' lives that can never come together into a satisfying whole? Mr. Trudeau did not discuss the relationship of these scores to the stories they told. It seems to me this music must be understood and evaluated according to the purpose for which it was made.
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