U.S. integrity is vastly more important than politics
Instead of watching what’s happening in the world through our political periscope, I think it is time to open up our eyes and see what is happening in real time.
As a caring human being, I feel the need to be a guardian angel of the future and speak up for national integrity.
The dignity of our government is diminished and reduced to chaotic rubble. We have to wake up and insist this not be an acceptable norm.
I was raised to be respectful and, even more, to embrace a pride in our country embodied by our leaders. The president to me has always been a representative of honor who exemplifies our core values to the world. Like it or not, that concept has vanished.
We even hold our movie stars and sports heroes accountable when they fall off the pedestal. Yet we allow this obtuse administration to continue to embarrass us to the world with its actions and words, even when the result is catastrophic to the nucleus of our country.
Maintaining our integrity as a nation is more important than any political issue could ever be. It is not about party, policy or even whom you voted for. It is about the future of our place in the world that belongs to generations yet to come. Open your eyes to what we really stand to lose. Once our core is reduced to rubbish, the only place left for it to go is in the trash. SUE McKELVEY North Strabane
We welcome your opinion
from the person they should admire? HELEN WILSON Squirrel Hill
“Stop the Mutilation: Twenty-Six States Allow Genital Mutilation, Including Pennsylvania” (July 20 Perspectives) by S. Amjad Hussain is a wellwritten perspective on female genital mutilation; however, the author ignores half the problem. In many cultures, both genders suffer the physical and psychological consequences of genital mutilation. Although many Americans use the benign term “circumcision” to describe male genital cutting, the procedure is anatomically equivalent to one of the most common FGM procedures: clitoral hood removal. Cutting off healthy body parts without compelling medical need is mutilation.
Certainly, there is no compelling medical case for the involuntary genital cutting of any child. Medical societies in Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and others do not support male infant circumcision; some actively oppose it. For example, the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) explains that the male prepuce (foreskin) is an important erotogenic structure for which no medical benefit justifies its routine removal. KNMG states that male circumcision is comparable to certain forms of female genital mutilation and violates children’s rights to bodily integrity.
It is hypocritical for the West to try to eliminate FGM while practicing MGC — involuntary genital cutting is a human problem, not just a female problem. Parents do not have the right to permanently alter the most sensitive part of their child’s body without his or her informed consent. All children, regardless of gender, culture or parental religion, have a fundamental right to all their healthy, functional body parts. GREGORY J. HARTLEY
Franklin Park