ALEX CHADWICK, host:
This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick, and joined now by DAY TO DAY senior producer Steve Proffitt, who's here to help share some of your comments.
STEVE PROFFITT reporting:
Alex, let's start with a small correction from one of our many sharp-eared listeners. This concerns a report we aired last week about a boycott of American products in Mexico.
CHADWICK: This is an effort tied to last Monday's demonstrations over immigration into this country, an effort to get consumers in Mexico to avoid products and services offered by U.S. based companies for that one day.
PROFFITT: Right. One of the companies mentioned was 7-11, but as Myron Shire Suitor(ph), who's from Beverly, Massachusetts notes, 7-11 is now owned by a Japanese firm.
CHADWICK: Really? I didn't know that.
PROFFITT: Yes. 7-11 was purchased by a private holding company last year. That company's based in Tokyo.
CHADWICK: Okay. What else?
PROFFITT: Oh say, can you see.
CHADWICK: The controversy over a Spanish language version of the Star Spangled Banner.
PROFFITT: Linda Maloney of Enosburg Falls, Vermont offers this challenge…
CHADWICK: She writes, Anybody who can sing the first three verses of the anthem in English gets to discuss this. Everybody else, silencio.
PROFFITT: On Friday, we had a couple of reports on the economy. One on what appears to be a good job outlook for this year's college grad.
CHADWICK: And another on what might be a disconnect between relatively good economic news and rather sour public opinion about the economy.
PROFFITT: Regarding the latter: I work at a large, publicly-traded corporation. Between now and early next year almost half my staff will be laid off as their jobs are automated or digitized.
CHADWICK: This listener, who asked that we not use her name lest she also be laid off, says anyone puzzled by the public view of the economy has no idea what the lives of ordinary workers are like.
PROFFITT: And from Seattle, Margaret Bartley writes about the good job market for college grads. She says the market is not so good for long time employees facing age discrimination. As a Boomer looking forward to another 20 or 30 years of working, she writes, I don't see the same rosy future.
CHADWICK: A number of letters about an interview I did last week with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim woman and writer who's published a collection of essays called The Caged Virgin. Here's how she explains the title.
Ms. AYYAN HIRSI ALI (Writer, The Caged Virgin): When I say The Caged Virgin, I mean the way women are treated or the woman is treated in Islam, confining her to a lifetime of house arrest and taking away her freedoms.
CHADWICK: Listener Timothy Stinson of Miami Lakes, Florida wrote to say he agrees that women are treated poorly by some Muslim men.
PROFFITT: But he strongly disagrees that this is an issue with the religion of Islam.
CHADWICK: Mr. Stinson, who says he converted to Islam while in the U.S Navy, wrote, Islam is a religion practiced by many human beings of many different cultures.
PROFFITT: And he notes that while this country has never had a woman president, a Muslim woman has been elected president of Pakistan.
Finally, Alex, comments about a story we did about making choices.
CHADWICK: Right. This was a conversation about a study that indicates people who make choices quickly are happier than people who try to explore every possibility before making a decision.
PROFFITT: Paul Delosha(ph) of Water Town, Mass., listened with amusement. He says he's known for a long time that too much choice is a bad thing and he offers this Daoist proverb: When all roads are open, no roads are open.
CHADWICK: Thank you for that wisdom. And thanks to all who wrote and keep the letters coming in, please.
PROFFITT: Just go to our website, it's npr.org, and click on the Contact Us link.
CHADWICK: NPR's Steve Proffitt, letters editor here, thank you.
PROFFITT: Always a pleasure, Alex. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.