Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Obligatory War Letters

Dr. Jerry Komar threatened suicide (Mailbag, April 3, 2003) at the thought of those supporting troops but not war, comparing it to "saying you support firefighters, but you don't want them to put out fires."

I think the doctor needs to put down his handgun and take his analogy machine in for tune-up. "Supporting firefighters, but against raging five-alarmers" would be more like it. Which, when you come to think of it, isn't that unreasonable.

Michael Kmiec
Philadelphia

I feel compelled to respond to the letter from Jerry Komar in which he stated, "Next time I hear or read that someone says they support the troops but not the war, I'll shoot myself."

Well, Jer, get ready to blow your head off, because I support the U.S. military as an instrument of foreign policy, yet disagree with the policy that sent them there. The problem is not with the troops, but with the politicians who direct them.

Your simplistic, imperialistic viewpoint in this matter is frightening. It is the Jerry Komars of the world that enable both our administration's aggression in Iraq and the very type of regime you hope that this illegitimate war will destroy.

Get the difference, Jer? Jer? Oh, well. He may have been small-minded, but at least he was true to his word.

Michael Merva
Jeffersonville

In "The Winds of War" (News, March 20, 2003), P. Gil Hendrickson is quoted as saying, "One American life is worth any 3,000 Afghanis or Iraqis!" Remarks such as these from xenophobic "patriots" serve an important function: They remind us that we are rapidly approaching the expiration date for Western civilization. On second thought, it seems safe to say that, thanks in large part to Mr. Hendrickson and his ilk, that date has already passed.

Kurt Rosenberg
Swarthmore

Truth Is Safer Than Fiction

(Re: "The Missing Link," Deborah Bolling, March 27, 2003)

I appreciated that very important points were made regarding the mythical "link" between breast cancer and prior abortion. As a member of the board of the Philadelphia ACLU, I certainly support the right of free speech and this would seem to include absurd statements on local billboards. However, as a physician who has provided care to women with breast cancer as well as those who made the difficult, personal choice to have an abortion, I cannot abide by the dissemination of medical misstatements that ultimately harm women, discredit the work of numerous researchers and serve the selfish interests of some in the pro-life movement.

I hope that many people in the pro-life movement will step forward and denounce this absurd bending of the truth. Perhaps if the misguided individuals responsible for the billboards truly understood the meaning of objective clinical trials, they would do the appropriate thing and take down their incorrect statements regarding breast cancer and abortion. Breast cancer is a serious disease, and we need to focus on established and potential risk factors, not perpetuate supposed risk factors that have no evidence in medical fact.

David Toub, M.D.
via e-mail