Letters to the Editor

Silenced voice

In addition to being a consummate sportscaster, Andy Musser was also a pioneer in the field of AM talk radio ("Andy Musser, a voice of summer, silent at 74," Tuesday). In the late 1960s, while I was working across the hall at WCAU-TV, WCAU radio pioneered an all-talk format. As I recall, Musser wittily hosted a nightly on-air swap program, where folks would call in to trade stuff with each other. Of course, play-by-play is every broadcaster's holy grail, and he was a master.

Edmond H. Weiss, Voorhees, EdWeiss@aol.com

Rights and limits

Edward A. Turzanski serves us all well in highlighting any abrogation of our First Amendment rights ("U.S. steps on right to religious convictions," Tuesday). He errs grievously, though, in extending these freedoms into a religious organization's provision of services that are funded by the taxpayer.

Education and medical services provided by federal tax dollars are not simply "intensely personal" matters. Through long-standing and thoroughly constitutional methods, we the people have determined that public provision and regulation of these areas is of intense common interest. As such, religious freedoms are not checked at the door but properly limited in the context of the freedom of conscience for all. Nobody should have to pass a religious test to access these services or have those services limited by anything but the rule of law.

I find the hollow threat to withdraw from the activity of caring for the sick or being active in the training of young minds to be an obnoxious canard that does a disservice to the best traditions of the Catholic faith.

Anthony Hollingworth, Philadelphia

Health and justice

Most legal efforts to disassemble the paths to legal abortion are moves that would stop the legal termination of life in the womb. The cessation of women's health care does not have to subsequently stem from that ("Women's health care under attack," Sunday). If abortion laws were changed, women would always be free to plan their families and provide the care they need for their bodies. They simply would not be able to have abortions.

There are many ways to succeed at the thing you are striving for, in this case healthy and happy women and caring and nurturing societies. But these must occur within certain rules so that society treats its members with equal justice under the law. Including a freedom for a woman to terminate a pregnancy will not help us reach our goal any more than slavery helped to continue our economic growth, or tobacco advertisements to our children made us commercially viable.

Society can stop the termination of children in the womb and still keep women's health a priority.

Tim McWilliams, Philadelphia, memcwill@comcast.net

When life begins

It is most assuredly NOT a scientific fact that human life begins at conception ("A Gosnell antidote: Consider all life a gift," Sunday). In the first place, there are no scientific "facts," only opinions and beliefs based on experiment and statistical probability. In the second place, although conception grants a new organization to a continuous thread of life (sperm and ova are alive), what makes one "human" and "valuable" is a rather sophisticated and active consciousness. This is based, in turn, on an elaborate and developed brain, replete with imagery based on memory and alive with projected plans. Why The Inquirer continues to publish nonsense like this is truly beyond me.

John Brodsky, Swarthmore, johnbrodsky7@verizon.net

Overturn Roe

I grew up in the post-Roe v. Wade era. To many in my generation, the anniversary of the fateful 1973 Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion, may go unnoticed, but it shouldn't.

Since 1973, an estimated 54 million children have lost their lives to abortion, and an untold number of women have been left to bear immeasurable pain, regret, and shame, often in silence. These children could have been our classmates, our friends, our coworkers, or maybe even our own siblings. We will never get to meet them. We will never get to experience their unique personalities, marvel at their gifts and talents, or celebrate their achieve- ments. Abortion took all this away from us.

We cannot undo what has been done, but we can make it right. We must overturn Roe v. Wade and restore legal protection for each human life.

Andrew Bair, Harrisburg

Don't punish kids

The faculty and staff of Chester Upland School District are heroes, doing an already-tough job in a tough place ("Legislators aim to save Chester's schools," Tuesday). The education that they offer the students of that district is the best and only proven path to better lives. If the school board did something wrong, then the board, alone, should pay for it. It's com- pletely ridiculous for the state to punish the children for the actions of the adults.

Brendan Hickey, Secane

Bad advice

A letter writer shares Leonard Pitts' opinion about being cautious in judging the behavior of soldiers in wartime ("Nothing 'average' about military," Wednesday). I am a Korean War veteran, and I, too, share this opinion. But the letter rec- ommends that to display this caution, one should take the advice of a retired Army colonel to "Shut up!" When the day comes that a private citizen "should" obey the order of a military person, forgoing free speech, America is on its way to extinction.

Presley R. Brown, Langhorne, bro294@msn.com