Letters to the editor

Don't let emotion get in way

A response to Mr. Cutts commentary on Oct. 20:

If I read you right, you are comparing the "religious right" to the Taliban and al-Qaida. I, on the other hand, compare these two terrorist organizations to those who similarly assign no value to life, to those who would have us destroy the most defenseless of human beings: silent victims, approximately 50 percent of which are female and 14 percent are black, who have no say and cannot even whimper a protest at being slaughtered.

This is the same mindset that tries repeatedly to eliminate a 14-year-old girl who is a "nuisance" because she does not kowtow to the accepted tradition: slavery.

On the other hand, someone like myself understands that any human being is a sovereign individual before God and has the same value as I do and should have the same rights and freedom to pursue life, liberty and justice described as unalienable in our country's founding documents.

I would urge folks to think things through. Do not let emotions cloud your vision! Do not let your traditions, whether they be theistic or atheistic religion, keep you from looking at the complete science and studies and making a reasoned decision. Look at a few ultrasounds and think, "that could have been my honor student child, or..."

John Wood

Carson City

We don't do enough for women

In response to K. L. Christenson's letter, I'm going to write my first letter to the editor. You're right, the U.S. is not a bad place for women, we were No. 22 in a pool of over 100 countries in how we treat women, so in the top 25 percent. But that isn't enough.

Women do not get equal pay for equal work. But, equally important, women don't have the responsibility for their own health care. Instead, it varies state to state what our health care might be. It is subject to state laws going back and forth year by year with different laws of humiliation and unnecessary health procedures.

Think about it, even the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, could be a woman of reproductive age and still not have the same rights under the law as men do, to take care of her own health with equal access to health care in every state of the union.

That makes absolutely no sense to me. This is an issue that has bothered me and I have tried to work for equality for 40 years or so. Now I wonder if I will live to see equality for women in this country. It's perfectly possible that I could die and never be considered equal in the country where I was born. It makes me sad.

Carol Edmund

Carson City