Outrage at Planned Parenthood
The recent Planned Parenthood videos have outraged people who have not really thought about the past 42 years since abortion was legalized.
Where was the outrage in 1973? How many women switched doctors because their OB-GYN brought in the willing abortionist to provide for a woman’s right to choose? Were people not bothered by the suction machine next to the examining table they were on while waiting to find out how their baby was growing within?
The outrage seems to be more about the selling fetus parts for profit instead of because of how those parts got to the petri dish in the first place.
Sharon Rideout
Hermon
Fund drug education, prevention
In all the recent articles I’ve read about the recent drug summits, it seems educators have been left out. I think education has not been used effectively in the past, but it is our best chance to bite the head off the snake by “scaring the kids straight.” None of my four kids, who are age 10 to 12, recognize the D.A.R.E. logo today when I showed it to them. In the 1980s, I just remember being told drugs are bad, and maybe that’s why it’s such a problem today.
Show kids real-life examples of what drugs can do. Have them read a local newspaper article so they can see how it is affecting their own community. Show them the effects it has on drug addicts’ relationships, criminal history compared to a healthy peer so they can see what drugs do to families. Show them statistics on relapse and success rates in rehab, so they understand the hold drugs take on users.
Let’s get this information to our kids in school, the Y, the local recreation department and at home before they have a chance to start a self-destructive habit. If a child is shown the results of drug abuse, they will be scared of drugs, not attracted to any mystery or fun, as it often is portrayed.
The money officials want to use for education or law enforcement could help education reach children, so fewer become a burden to society.
Michael Haggerty
Old Town
Afghanistan and the heroin epidemic
Many officials have stated the war on drugs has been lost, but the recent spike in deaths from heroin overdoses has spurred renewed effort to combat the problem. And while several articles in the BDN have been devoted to recent plans to deal with the issue, what seems to be missing is any reference to the source of the heroin problem.
Where does the stuff come from? Mostly the poppy fields of Afghanistan. Of all the atrocities committed by the Taliban, the one thing they did do was eradicate poppy fields. Something is very wrong here. I wonder who controls the airspace over there? Some folks are making big money. I wonder who.
Peter Clifford
Belfast
Aroostook memories
While in Presque Isle to attend my 50th high school reunion, I visited Stewart’s Farm on the Houlton Road. I was surprised to meet Lesa Bloom, who actually made the old potato barrels I remember from long ago. The smell and the rough cedar wood with the small slits in the top rim brought good memories of where I put my 5 cent ticket when I was 7.
Many mornings the ground would be frozen, so I would pull two barrels together and crawl inside to get warm. The $5 I earned that season was saved to buy clothes so I wouldn’t have to wear hand-me-downs. The hard work demanded by good parents led most kids to lead productive lives, which also affects what we teach of our grandkids today.
Stewart’s Farm is a window of history of what made The County a great potato producer and is typical of what helped make America the best nation in this world.
Craig Johnson
Savannah, Georgia