Road trip

RI’s 100th convention [“Birmingham at its best,” October] would be an ideal opportunity for American Rotarians with an interest in history to tour a site near Birmingham with revolutionary connections.

The ancestral home of George Washington’s family at Sulgrave Manor is only an hour’s drive down the M40 in Northamptonshire. It has been preserved in its 17th-century state, when it was occupied by John Washington before he emigrated to Virginia. John’s brother Lawrence married into the Spencer family and became the mayor of Northampton. Princess Diana was descended from Lawrence’s in-laws. Their ancestral home, Althorp, is only a few miles farther on. The princess is interred on the estate.  

Terry Giles
Oshawa, Ont., Canada

Convention he can’t miss

I was just ending my year as president of the Rotary Club of Windsor St. George, England, when I heard that Birmingham had been chosen to host the 100th RI Convention. I began looking into the history of this great Rotary event and knew immediately that I had to attend. Since then, I have given up my career in computing to teach English as a foreign language around the world. I plan to be in teaching as a volunteer in Thailand in the run-up to the RI Convention but will definitely be coming home to the United Kingdom to attend. I cannot miss this historic return of the convention to Birmingham. I can’t wait to be a part of something so special in my home country.

Mike Brown
Berkshire, England

Leave no Rotary trace

Having a love affair with the mountains [“Canadian plants Rotary flag on Everest,” November] means leaving them as you find them. In this situation, I am sorry to hear a Rotary flag was left on top of Mount Everest. I am prouder of the person who summits a mountain and leaves nothing behind. If everyone who reached the summit of every peak left something behind, it would no longer be a beautiful place. Mount Everest deals with tons of trash left behind by the climbing expeditions.

We have 54 “fourteeners” (mountains whose summits are over 14,000 feet in elevation), as we affectionately call them here in Colorado. I certainly hope you don’t leave your flag on any of them.

Lynn M. Kirchner
Carbondale, Colo., USA

Returning reader

I’ve been a Rotarian for more than 20 years and for years have been throwing away the national magazine. It had never been relevant to me or particularly well done. I’m in the publications and public relations business, so I’m a tough critic. But last month, for some reason, I opened the magazine as I stood beside the recycling bin. The magazine never made it to recycling, as I was pleasantly surprised to see a new publication! I don’t know how long it has been “new,” but it is beautifully designed and full of articles that were compelling, well written and interesting. I will be a devoted reader from now on. Congratulations to you and your entire staff for a first-rate publication.

Terry Van Nortwick
Gainesville, Fla., USA

Back basics

Despite some helpful advice on prevention, several facts were missing from October’s Health column (“Oh, my aching back”) that are crucial to the context and content. Chiropractors are doctors, just not “medical doctors,” and chiropractors can and do order MRIs and CT scans just as MDs do. Chiropractors are the primary portal of entry for people with back and neck pain. They can diagnose and rule out more serious pathology in the course of exams and tests. The various providers need to respect and refer to one another for the benefit of patients.  

Steven L. Olfert 
Reedley, Calif., USA

Corps fellowship

As an active Rotarian for almost 20 years, as a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in South Korea from 1976 to 1978 working in public health, and as a past chair of the board of the National Peace Corps Association (the Peace Corps alumni organization), I want to thank you for your excellent article about Rotary and Peace Corps [August]. I know many returned Peace Corps volunteers and former Peace Corps staff who are active Rotarians. They bring experience from living and working in developing countries to their clubs’ international service projects, and they appreciate the importance of volunteerism that all Rotarians embrace. I ran into many Peace Corps friends from around the world at the RI Convention in Los Angeles, and I was pleased to see that Peace Corps had two booths at the convention. Some of us are also creating a Rotary Fellowship of returned Peace Corps volunteers, so we invite all returned volunteers and former staff who are Rotarians to contact me ( stevewerner0932@msn.com ) or Mark Zober, president of the Rotary Club of Jerusalem ( rotarymark@gmail.com ), if you’d like to join.

Steve Werner
Centennial, Colo., USA

Environmental education

As a naturalist and a Rotarian, I must thank you for your environmental articles, which are very pertinent to our understanding and appreciation of our Planet Earth. It is our lasting legacy that we must keep up. Years of inertia have destroyed valuable ecosystems, wetlands, and pristine forests. I would like to see more educational articles on climate change in future issues, especially on alleviation measures that Rotarians as individuals and clubs can take. This is a global issue that has to be entrusted to every citizen of the world.

Harban Singh
Pontian, Malaysia

Afghan first in 2003

It was a delight to relive the memories of a beautiful convention in the September issue. The authors say that Rotarian Mohammad Dost Safai was the first Afghan to attend an RI Convention. But I remember seeing Rotarian Karima Farani, the charter president of the Rotary Club of Kabul, receiving the club charter from the hands of President Bhichai Rattakul at the Brisbane convention in 2003.

Sam Movva
Vijayawada, India

Editor’s note: You’re right: According to the 2003 Convention Proceedings , Farani accepted the charter, saying: “To all of you, who are thinking of my broken country and wounded nation, thank you very much. I pray that God will give me the power to sow the seeds of Rotary love in my country.”

Correction

In the November Global Outlook supplement, we incorrectly placed the Rotary Club of Hansestadt Stralsund, Germany, in Berlin. As its name indicates, the club is in Stralsund.