Letters to the Editors

Health directive offensive to many

The issue of mandating that religious institutions provide health care coverage including birth control to their employees is not a cause taken up exclusively by “hard-right Republicans” as your editorial on Jan. 31 suggests.

This issue is offensive to many people, especially those who value the United States Constitution. The thought that our government can impose its will on any religious institution, contrary to the core beliefs of that institution, is frightening at best if you pause to consider the wide door that such an imposition opens.

The arguments put forth in your editorial don’t strike me as strong enough to warrant such oppressive action by our government.

Women wh o are employed should easily be able to afford contraception if they choose. A quick Internet search offers the cost of birth control pills at $15 to $50 per month. Perhaps the cost should be part of the calculation of personal responsibility in reproductive issues.

If women insist that contraception be part of their health insurance coverage, perhaps they should seek employment at a non- religious institution. LOUANNE BENNETT

Spring City, Tenn. new front-runner. The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses.

“Scarcely a one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy. One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya. Collectively, they expose a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W. Bush look like a scholar. Das ist so wahr!”

JOHN HIGHT