Letters to the Editor
Learned Hand
Published Letters: 25 Editor's Choice: 1
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Wiccan's and "Witch"
[Read the article: Crying "witch!"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is ridiculous that Wiccan's have tried to appropriate the word "witch" and then claim that every time someone says "witch" they are talking about Wiccans.
Wicca is a spanking new religion and despite what some unwashed, handfasted, naked hippie might tell you, has no links to anything that happened in the historical witch hunts. The word "witch" predates Wicca by centuries, and in the real world, no one knows about Wicca, and those that do can't be bothered to care about it.
Additionally, anyone talking about witchcraft in Africa is certainly not going to be talking about Wiccans. Wiccans need to sit down and realize no one cares about them, no one will ever care about them, and no one is interested in burning them. We might be interested in a mandatory bathing program though. Use soap too, you hippies.
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Corruption in the third world
[Read the article: Corruption in Iraq: Where did they learn that?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's fun to make correspondences between various faults of the Bush regime and problems in any part of the world it touches, but the simple fact is that corruption is rampant in every third world country. An argument can indeed be made that the prevalence of corruption is why they are third world nations.
It is almost miraculous that the first world developed the institutions and habits which prevent corruption that we did. A careful reading of American history will show that the US was quite corrupt until relatively recently. We didn't put the final big cap on corruption until the wave of reform that swept the nation in the 1970's in the wake of Watergate.
Our proud Democratic party was founded on a bed of corruption. Machine politics is just institutionalized corruption. Machine politics was the foundation of Democratic power for a long time, and one could argue that it still lives on in Chicago.
The Republicans, even shortly after Lincoln, were also super corrupt. The selection of Chester Arthur as Vice President was intended as the hight of Republican corruption, and he in fact advanced to President when one of the "Stalwarts" assassinated Garfield with the goal of advancing Arthur to the Presidency.
Fortunately Arthur turned against his roots and championed Civil Service reform in one of the most important early moves against American institutional corruption.
So, yes, Iraq is very corrupt. The Bush administration is also very corrupt. But the Iraqis did not need to learn anything from the Bushies in order to master corruption. Additionally, our high horse from which we can preach about the evils of corruption has suspiciously short legs.
A better complaint against the Bush policies is to say that like they have about everything else, they failed to recognize and plan for the corruption they were inevitably bound to encounter.
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The baby we turned away
[Read the article: The baby I turned away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The baby my wife and I turned away was biological.
At our 20 week ultrasound we were told that our baby (fetus) had a defective heart. He essentially had only half of a heart, and was missing the workhorse left side. It is possible for hearts to function with modifications if they only have a left side. If they only have a right side, like our child, a heart transplant is the only hope.
His requirements were these: An open heart operation within minutes of birth. Another open heart operation within the first week of birth. Others to follow as necessary. A heart transplant as soon as possible, and before he was about four or five. He would need a new heart by the time he was a teenager. His maximum life expectancy was about 30 years. He had no more than an 80% chance of living a week. Every operation contained a high risk of death. Every operation carried a high risk of other complications. He would always be on medications. He would always be sickly. There was a high chance of brain problems related to air flow.
This was going to be our second child. We already had one very happy son. We decided to abort this second child. This was primarily to protect our first son's childhood. His mother and I did not want him to transform from a happy boy to the son who was in the way of the sick child who needed all of our attention. We also were very aware of the strains having this sick child would put on our relationship and how many marriages break up after the birth of a child as sick as our second would be.
Despite making what to us was a fairly clear cut decision, we were both devastated to make that choice. We have both cried rivers as a result and we miss our little man. We always will. I can accept that I both miss him and don't believe we made a mistake. I wish I could have been his daddy.
We now have a second (third) child who would have been impossible to conceive had we had the one we aborted. He is an extremely happy and healthy little man. Our first son loves being his big brother. We all love being together as a family. I miss the one that is not here, but I am not sorry that I am not living in day to day realistic fear that my child is about to die. I am not sorry that my oldest spends his time with his little brother in the park rather than the hospital. I am not sorry that their mother and I are still together and not fighting over the many issues that surround a sick child.
We all make choices. I am at peace with the ones we made. I hope you are too.