Women, poor under attack in NC laws
Congratulations to the governor and North Carolina legislature. Your war on women and the poor is a sign of how you value the people you are supposed to work for.
You have no plan in place for health care to replace what you have blocked. You are killing access to affordable health care offered by Planned Parenthood. You are putting safe abortion out of reach except for the wealthy. Will you take responsibility when back-alley abortionists come back and kill women?
Some of you apparently got your sex education from those back alleys. You are requiring that sex education courses teach information that is out of date and incorrect. Modern abortions do not cause problems with future pregnancies.
Rape victims do get pregnant, about 30,000 women each year (and no men, in case you did not know). Today, two legislators announced a law that is supposed to make abortions safer because women have died from abortion clinics in this state. We are supposed to believe that, when the only figures we have seen are citations issued to some clinics for unspecified infractions.
Until shown proof and death certificates, I for one question the veracity of statements about the dangers of these abortion clinics. This is all an end-run to get what you “believe” should be the law.
That is why we must have separation of church and state.
Instead of making a mess, you should be supporting correct sex education to prevent the necessity of abortions. Modern science and medicine have made that possible.
Those abortions that are medically necessary must be judged by the woman, her God and her medical professional, not some ill-informed politicians who are told by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) what laws they should pass.
This is the year of 2013 AD, not 24 BC.
— Donald C. Tracy

Salisbury

Day the music died
A few months ago, the Salisbury Post did a story on a father/daughter dance held here in town. The article included many pictures. You couldn’t help but notice proud papas dancing with their little girls and the little girls feeling safe and happy with their dads, all dressed up and being a grown-up for the night. There was a touching air of sweetness about it all, and I’m glad the newspaper ran the story.
Not long ago, a school district in Rhode Island wanted to hold its own father/daughter dance. Unfortunately, some people complained, and the school decided to cancel the dance.
What kind of people complain about a father/daughter dance? I guess the politically correct kind. Apparently, these folks felt that because the dance included only girls and not boys, it wasn’t deemed “gender neutral” and was therefore discriminatory. The school at that point could have told these complainers to get a life and held the dance anyway. Instead, the school caved and called the whole thing off.
This caving solves absolutely nothing. It more likely emboldens selfishness and foments resentment. If little brother has a problem with little sister going to a dance with their dad, mom and dad need to have a little chat with their son.
How does a father tell his daughter there will be no dance, and what does he say when she asks why? I imagine he’ll make up a little story because she probably wouldn’t understand the real one. She’s not alone!
— Allan Gilmour

Salisbury