reader comments
Letters
WEAKLINGS AT THE EMPIRE’S HEEL
I don’t live in Regina. I just happened to be in for the day Sunday and caught the July 2 edition of prairie dog. I just want to say thanks for John Conway’s article “The Real Rogue State”. It’s really nice for people to stand up and say something. I hate to admit it, but Canada is U.S.A.’s bitch a lot of the time. Our government is selling us out and not doing anything to fight back. We used to have something like the third-strongest military. We used to be a peacekeeping nation. But now...
Travis Ockenden
Margo, SK
CARLE’S A KEEPER
Carle Steel is a national treasure. Do what you must to keep her. She’s one of those people who really seem to have been paying attention when life was trying to teach her those lessons that are available to all but learned by few.
Perhaps find her a mate to keep her anchored here — I’d offer but I’m taken. If she’s the type of person who can be cheered up by a bratwurst on Scarth Street, then consider this an invitation to her for a free lunch.
Duane Numrich
Regina
DON’T TRASH OTHERS’ CHOICES BECAUSE YOU REGRET YOURS
Hi, this is in response to Paulette Dull’s letter last issue [“Government Should Restrict Abortion Access”, July 2-14].
I am sorry that you regret your personal choice to have an abortion. However, life is full of choices. Imagine if all of us had our choices taken away — where to live, who to marry, what to do for a living. It would be a very scary world to live in.
Any person (male or female) should be free to make choices for their body and health. Abortion is one choice. It needs to be offered in a safe, legal environment so that women who need to use that option don’t have to risk their lives for it.
Before people go crying about the baby that could have been, maybe they need to consider all the children already in this world who suffer in homes where women could not or would not make the choice to have an abortion. We have a plethora of children in the foster care system as a result of unfit parents who brought children into this world and should not have.
You regret your choice, but I am sure there are lots of other women who are happy with their choices — and their ability to choose.
Regards,
Dawn Thomas
Regina
TOMATOES ARE PEOPLE TOO
I wish to comment on the editor’s note to Paulette who is suffering the adverse effects of having an abortion.
After offering your sympathies you say, “We are however adamant that fetuses are not people.” Your adamant statement does not change a fact.
Today I admired my tomato plant full of varying sizes of little green tomatoes. Should my adorable great-niece pick them off and her Mom defend her saying to me, “What’s your problem, she just picked off green globs?” I would be adamant that she destroyed my tomatoes. Sharon could be as adamant as she wants to be and it would not change the fact that 15 of my tomatoes were destroyed.
In all of nature, life is life at all stages of development. Thankfully my niece did not destroy my cute little great-niece as her brain was forming in the uterus. This little one is too smart to pick my undeveloped tomatoes all the while many so-called intelligent people are destroying people. You being adamant does not change a fact.
Esther Lutzer
Regina
Editor’s note: Thank you for the letter. I think it’s terrific you have a great-niece and I’m glad you enjoy her. Someday she will be able to have her own children and when she is, prairie dog will adamantly defend her right to make decisions for her own body. Best wishes for the tomatoes. /Stephen Whitworth
TRUTH IN ALL-CAPS
I would like to respond to Carle Steel’s comments in prairie dog regarding the Pro-Life bus ads [“Bus Ad Provokes Controversy”, June 3-16]. I have seen all the ads and I do not find them offensive or think that they “bully” you into a “forced pregnancy”. And there are women who also do not agree with you.
While I don’t agree with your comments, I believe in your right to say them as long as you’re not promoting hatred toward a group or individuals.
In your article, you say Advertising Standards Canada is interested in TRUTH in advertising. Please explain why, when the TRUTH is spoken or displayed in graphic images, the pro-abortion folks want to discredit, call names, even lie or tell half-truths to try and hide the TRUTH. Why? Why do you want silence in the public square? Why do you want legal and political silence on this issue? We have statistics on gender-selection abortions in Vancouver and Toronto. Why did you not point out that the government gives millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood and zero to Pro-Life?
If you are really “pro-woman”, why would you not support the RIGHT TO MAKE AN INFORMED CHOICE? Showing the TRUTH AND INFORMING WOMEN about the realities of abortion is not “bullying advertising”.
This is my position: 1.) It is morally wrong to kill a human being. 2.) An unborn child is a human being. 3.) ABORTION is killing an unborn child. 4.) Therefore ABORTION is morally wrong.
If you believe in your opinion, publicly defend it. You have a right to free speech in this country and so do I.
Michael Martorana
Regina
Editor’s note: Thank you for the letter, Michael. Abortion is a complicated issue and people’s feelings on it are rarely black and white. What is black and white is that pregnant women must have the freedom to make decisions regarding their own bodies (something Canadian women have only had since 1988, shamefully). This is not negotiable.
As for the Regina transit ads, we ran that story because freedom of speech in advertising is an interesting topic. And also, that ad is a horrible piece of evil propaganda designed to guilt-trip women into having kids they’re not ready for and we hate it. /Stephen Whitworth
JOIN THIS GRIM SPECTACLE OF PRO-CHOICE VS. ANTI-ABORTION DEBATE
Or better yet, share your thoughts on the articles in this issue. Send us your letters by e-mail to feedback@prairiedogmag.com, or old-fashioned snail mail to #201-1836 Scarth St., Regina, Saskatchewan, S4P 2G3. Letters will be edited for grammar, spelling, style and length (300 words maximum). This page isn’t an open forum — we only print letters about prairie dog stories. Please include your full name, city of residence and a daytime phone number so we can call you to determine you are not full of the monkeyshines. Letters sent to prairie dog may also be printed in Planet S, our sister publication in Saskatoon. Next letters deadline is Wednesday, July 21 in the Year Of Our Lord 2010.