Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013

Comparison between abortion and Holocaust holds no water

Anne Frank was a person; one of seven million Jews executed during World War II. She was 13 years old, going through all the troubles and tribulations of a young person. She had hopes, dreams, fears, and faith, a faith that would ultimately be her undoing. She and 10 million other people were coldly and cruelly, deliberately put to death by a government which could not tolerate people that fit outside their norm. Incidentally, all 10 million people killed were able to survive without an umbilical cord.

A certain individual wrote in recently with a histrionic tirade that compared abortions in America to the Holocaust. I would point out one fine distinction: not one aborted fetus has ever been a person. They were alive, certainly, but a person is far more than simply “alive.” Someone who has gone through experiences and adopted attitudes, beliefs, faiths, and dreams. A person can survive outside the mother who carried them to term; an opinion the Supreme Court supported when they cut off abortions after 24 weeks, the point of fetal viability.

Anne Frank was more than a collection of cells in a womb with human DNA. She was a person. For anyone to use the deaths of so many people — mothers, daughters, fathers, sons — as a comparison for abortion today is a great insult to actual people who have died.

Perhaps some people should devote himself to bettering the life of the post born rather than wailing and gnashing his teeth for the people who never loved, laughed, cried, dreamed, longed, or hoped for a better tomorrow.

David Bushey

Minden

Unless you’re a terrorist, don’t worry about the NSA’s actions

How dare the National Security Agency use the powers of surveillance that were given to it under the Patriot Act! All the people screaming about NSA surveillance now will probably be the same ones blaming NSA for not doing its job if the United States is attacked again. For all the anti-government and ill-informed citizens: get over it.

The NSA has a job to do to protect you, me, the country. The NSA collects phone numbers as part of its effort to ferret out terrorists. Calls aren’t listened to nor are emails read — unless of course you’re a terrorist. For the government not to utilize data-mining techniques in the interest of national security would be inexcusable.

Ron Lowe

Nevada City, Calif.