I am writing in regards to Todd Lenaburg’s article “Who will stop the genocide?”There is a statistic that I found unbelievable, but first off, I would like to compliment Mr. Lenaburg’s skillful rewording of www.abortionno.org. Although I would not be as bold as to call it plagiarizing, it comes close.As for the statistic that was so freely thrown out: “more than 93 percent of people use (abortion) as a form of birth control.” Now while I do not know exactly what span of time Mr. Lenaburg was referring to, let’s explore this for a moment. For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that no one uses any other form of contraceptive, so the remaining 7 percent are childbirths. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there were more than 4 million childbirths in United States in 2003. This would calculate to over 53 million abortions in 2003 alone, greatly contradicting the 40 million since 1973 stated in the article. Let’s not explore the statistics if other forms of contraceptives were used or if the 93 percent statistics included all the way back to 1973. In the future, please do your readers a justice by checking your “facts.” Arin SmithParent
I share with many that utopian vision that America can do wonderful things – we’ve proven it time and time again. Yet, I can honestly say that I have never felt so despondent and fearful for my country as I feel today.Debate rages about what our founding fathers meant when they wrote, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” Throughout history, American leaders have made it clear that religion should be a private matter between a man and his God and that it has no place in state matters.Are moral values a myth? No, I do not think that moral values are some absurd myth that Republicans conjured up. As far as I’m concerned, neither party has a corner on religious devotion or faith. The last time I looked, God did not register as a Republican or Democrat.I don’t understand why many advocate for the placement of the Ten Commandments in our schools, businesses, government buildings. Do they constantly need reminding about how they’re supposed to live their life? For example, love thy neighbor-but not if they are gay, or pro-choice, or against the Iraqi war? How about the Sixth Commandment? Thou shall not kill-but are civilian Iraqi “infidels” okay? Whatever happened to “blessed are the peacemakers”? How about “blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill”? How about greed, corporate lying and stealing? How about the 45 million uninsured people in this country? Are these moral values?There are many of us out here (50 percent of the population) that passionately believe that caring for the poor and vulnerable is a moral issue. We believe that human rights-treating every person as you yourself would like to be treated-is a moral issue. We believe that caring for God’s earth is a moral issue. We believe that telling the truth is a moral issue. We believe that war-particularly one which is unjustifiable-is a moral issue. In my opinion, this is the meaning of moral values.
Rosemary BellInstructor