Mailbag

Horror picture

I write this letter while gazing at your May 8 cover ("All the rage"), showing a picture of a woman that I can only feel sorry for. Her goal is to be a doctor, judging by her button describing herself as a "medical student for choice." However, rather than wanting to save lives, she intends to take lives someday. Your cover, showing this person's face twisted in hate, typifies the horror of "pro-choice." We should all pray that God will change her views before she enters the medical field as a practicing physician.

-Neil Pike

Upper Sandusky, Ohio

The photo of the aerial view of the March for Women's Lives was quite impressive. It was estimated that there were 1.2 million marchers that day. Imagine now a crowd about 100,000 larger. That would portray the number of unborn children aborted each year in the United States. Other photos in the article showed us some of the seedier members of the march. This is of interest perhaps, but as the young man in Uncle Tom's Cabin said, "in my opinion, it is you considerate, humane men, that are responsible for this brutality and outrage wrought by these wretches; because, if it were not for your sanction and influence, the whole system could not keep foot-hold for an hour."

-Janet Jensen

Endicott, N.Y

I am disappointed in "All the rage." The article was good, but some of the pictures went overboard. We have young readers in our home who don't need to see the poster language.

-Meredith Hamilton

Elgin, Texas

Sometimes pictures do speak louder than words, such as the photo of Cybill Shepard holding a sign saying, "Too bad John Ashcroft's mother didn't believe in abortion" ("More sermons, fewer celebrities," May 8), and the photo of a woman holding a sign saying, "Abort Bush." By so bluntly speaking their minds, these women have shown us that they have known all along that the fetus is a human being and, astonishingly, that they are saddened that the only person they can legally murder is their own baby. That's pretty scary stuff.

-John Longmire

Quarryville, Pa.

If a conservative held some sign about a liberal person, viewpoint, or cause equivalent to Cybill Shepard's sign about John Ashcroft, the liberal media would emit a huge outcry and label it "hate speech." But when liberals do it, it's applauded, or at least ignored.

-Michael Cook

Shellsburg, Iowa

Thanks for publishing those pictures ("The photos that didn't make the wire," May 8). Will the mainstream media show them? I haven't seen anything yet. They will splash photos of sadistic American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, but not photos of the raw hatred of pro-abortion marchers. What hypocrites.

-John Takeuchi

Fairfield, Calif.

I take offense at the sub-headline of the cover article: "An embedded reporter's look inside the paranoid, determined, and sad world of pro-choice activism." We are indeed determined, but I am neither paranoid nor sad. The rhetoric used by pro-lifers is growing so old. If a woman feels sadness after an abortion, it is not over the abortion but over what could have been if things were better. It's much like when one has a miscarriage, which is nature's way of aborting a child. Are you going to curse God for taking those children out of their mom's wombs?

-Erlene Ford

Boise, Idaho

On April 25, 40 women marched in San Francisco's Union Square in support of the large rally in Washington, D.C., and it must have been important because KCBS, an all-news radio station here in the Bay Area, told me about it every hour on the hour as I drove to the Support Traditional Marriage rally, held along 19th Avenue. More than a few thousand people met peacefully outdoors in a public park wearing T-shirts and holding signs. Some read, "Honk if you're for traditional marriage." I have never been flipped off that many times in one day, which was fun in a weird way, but there were far more horn-honking folks. On the way home I eagerly tuned to KCBS once again, hoping my favorite news station would finally acknowledge our presence. They did. Every half hour the traffic report noted slow going on 19th Avenue due to an unspecified protest.

-Ken Paxton

Union City, Calif.

I have finally found one version of a popular phrase I can agree with. Suppose an educator were to say, "I personally believe in evolution, but I don't think it is right to push my views on the many people who disagree

with me."

-Terry Chappell

Aptos, Calif.

Copy rights?

I am a youth pastor and say a hearty "amen" to Joel Belz's column on "Christian piracy" (May 8). I recently had a discussion with a young man in my church over this issue and was unable to convince him that his illegal copying of his favorite bands was wrong. His justification: "Everyone else does it, too." What great logic. The column presented the subject so well that I considered photocopying it and giving it to each teen, but I'm not sure they would catch the irony.

-Rob Gribbin

Madison, N.C.

If copying music is illegal, Christian young people should be taught to obey the law. But copying information is not "stealing." Copyright laws should be relaxed, or some compromises should be found.

-Dore Schupack

Almaty, Kazakhstan

As a Gen-X believer who has been unabashedly copying music CDs for several years now, Mr. Belz's column forced me to confront my own murky ethics about music piracy. I have long been told that copying music CDs is legal if one doesn't sell the copies or "widely" distribute them. After reading the column, I researched copyright infringement and learned that this is not so.

-Pete Dean

Denver, Colo.

I disagree with your view on downloading music. I find nothing morally wrong with downloading unreleased, live, or acoustic tracks which cannot be purchased on a CD. In fact, I have bought more CDs as a result of downloading music and have discovered new bands. I also disagree with your generalization that my generation may not be able to deal with harder issues as a result of this.

-Eric McCullough, 17

Baldwin, Md.

The day after

What has happened in Canada is bound to happen in America ("Remaining silent," May 8). When that day comes, what will happen to religious organizations? Will they take attorney Bruce W. Long's advice and avoid public criticism of identifiable groups, or will they continue to proclaim in love for the sake of the gospel that homosexuality is a sin which has eternal effects?

-Michael Hageman

St. Louis, Mo.

Silent spring

Gene Edward Veith's "Spring training" (May 8) was an interesting comparison of war and baseball, but the accompanying artwork by Krieg Barrie stopped me cold. The image of the soldiers seeing the bleachers empty out haunts me. I cut out the picture and taped it by my prayer chair as a reminder to stay in the "bleachers" and keep praying.

-Debbie Smith

DeWitt, Neb.

Gene Edward Veith hit a grand slam with "Spring training." Baseball held dear everything sublime, from sacrifice bunts to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. The problem is not that baseball has abandoned what it once held dear; rather, Americans no longer hold baseball dear. We need to worry that our culture is one of football fans.

-Patrick Weeks

Racine, Wis.

Daniels needed

Both pieces on "Democrat Lite" Arlen Specter's primary win over Pat Toomey ("Republican vs. Republican," "Hot friend cooling," May 8) well illustrate the biblical and political conservative's dilemma and frustration in supporting President Bush and the GOP establishment this fall. Why bother to vote and elect so-called GOP conservatives to office, only to find mind-boggling compromise and apathy to our biblical concerns? What is the point? Where's a Daniel when you need one?

-Bernie Diaz

Pembroke Pines, Fla.