Letters to the editor on food stamps, contraception rule ...

How dare state cut aid to U.S. kids?

For the past year I have sat by and watched our state leaders dismantle much that is important to me. It began with the elimination of funding for the arts; the closing of several Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services offices, which made it harder for people in need to get services; and an assault on K-12 education, which forced school districts to lay off teachers and close schools. Though I didn?t agree with these and other actions, I didn?t say anything.

Then I opened The Eagle on Jan. 23 and was confronted by the headline ?Immigrants? kids cut from food-stamp rolls.? I read on in disbelief that our state government would actually do what the headline said. Imagine my shock as I read in the first paragraph that hundreds of low-income, U.S.-born children had been eliminated from receiving food-stamp benefits.

This time I can?t remain silent. Enough is enough. How dare we as a state not feed our children? I urge all citizens who care about their neighbors who happen to be poor, elderly, disabled or children to contact the governor and their state legislators and say, ?Stop this insanity.?

CONNIE DIETZ

Wichita

Slap in the face

Regarding ?Support decision? (Jan. 29 Letters to the Editor): The Catholic Church is not a smorgasbord where one who disagrees can pick and choose which teachings he wants to follow. That would be like pulling pages out of the Bible or the catechism of the Catholic Church.

It is not difficult to find out what the church teaches. In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his landmark encyclical letter ?Humanae Vitae,? which re-emphasized that it is always intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human beings from coming into existence.

The Catholic bishops have issued a strong statement vowing to fight the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services edict that, in effect, equates pregnancy with disease and mandates that every employer pay for contraception procedures, including alleged contraceptives that are actually abortion-inducing drugs.

This is a direct attack on religious liberty, freedom of conscience, the social service ministry of the Catholic Church. This mandate has undermined the democratic process by forcing all Americans into a culture of contraception and abortion, and bypasses the legislative process. The mandate comes like a slap in the face, as it will force Catholic institutions to violate Catholic belief, discontinue health care or close their doors.

TERRY BRENNAN

Wichita

Mandate an attack

A letter writer gave her ?Catholic? opinion concerning the recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate on covering contraceptives in health care plans (?Support decision,? Jan. 29 Letters to the Editor). The writer?s basis for her approval of the Obama administration?s far-reaching decree were the ?Catholic principles of taking care of life, family and liberty.? The mandate is an attack on all three.

The church teaches that sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception are wrong, because they either prevent the creation of new life or destroy it. Families have been harmed, not helped, by them. Sexual gratification has become an end, instead of the means through which new life can be created.

One has to twist logic into a pretzel to say that the mandate conforms to liberty. President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have launched a full-frontal assault on religious freedom. According to them, they are the final arbiters when it comes to deciding whether an institution is a religious employer. Why are the proponents of ?church-state separation? all of a sudden mute? The federal government is telling religious institutions and programs that they have to choose between violating their conscience and not providing health care coverage for their employees.

HANS ASMUSSEN

Wichita

Slow down on DD

As president of the Starkey Foundation, I urge everyone to read Phillip Brownlee?s commentary ?Remove DD from plan? (Jan. 29 Opinion).

Echoing Brownlee?s view, I think the headlong pace of this effort to move the long-term care of the developmentally disabled into a managed-care system, seemingly without input from knowledgeable and experienced people in the field, borders on irresponsibility.

I urge our political leaders to slow down, seek the views of those in the field, and then do what is right for those of us who are the most vulnerable.

RON TERZIAN

Wichita

Clear thinking

Rep. Tim Huels-kamp, R-Fowler, said that President Obama had as much to do with the killing of Osama bin Laden as Huelskamp had with the Kansas City Chiefs? victory over the Green Bay Packers (?So they said,? Jan. 29 WE Blog excerpts). I am so relieved.

I now know that at least one Republican will not be giving the credit for tearing down the Berlin Wall to Ronald Reagan. The same logic relieves Jimmy Carter of the onus of the failed rescue mission of the Iranian hostages. All Obama and Carter did as commanders in chief was approve the missions and give the orders. All Reagan did was give a speech that included the words, ?Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.?

Thank you to Huelskamp for his levelheaded, clear thinking.

MEL ZIMMERMAN

Wichita

Source: http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/02/2198941/letters-to-the-editor-on-food.html

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