A Simplistic ‘Takeover’?
Re: “Taking Stock of the Takeover”
8/26/02

I don’t think much of this kind of superficial article. For someone to use broad-brush statements like “neo-liberalism” is to demonstrate a misunderstanding of the complexities in building economies. Having an MBA from Wharton probably makes things even worse for someone with that training — she’ll get the impression that she knows how things work. MBA training provides a hubris regardless of whether one’s ideology is neo-liberal or someone has had an “epiphany.”

I expect much more from an “investigative” journalist than this drivel. I learned nothing from this article. It is time that people stop looking for the villains (there are plenty for sure) and start looking for solutions.

It is time that both sides of this debate take a breath and think about the people that they claim to be helping. I don’t see this Hertz person as doing anything but trying to get her 15 minutes of fame.

Ron Hira

Planned Parenthood and the Police
Re: “Planned Parenthood’s Iowa Predicament”
8/7/02

The Iowa court considers every woman who was pregnant during this period a suspect, and so all of them must surrender their medical records? The Iowa court thinks it’s prudent and efficient to investigate this crime by discovering the name of every woman who was found by a physician to be pregnant at a specific time, and then they go to each of their homes to see if a baby is there?

How is this an effective investigative procedure to discover the perpetrator of this horrible crime? Perhaps the mother drove in from somewhere else to get rid of the child and is now living somewhere in Missouri. Spread the pregnancy dragnet to Missouri? How about Illinois?

Pat Goudey O’Brien
Warren, Vermont

Iowa Planned Parenthood has by the nature of their work no incentive to aid the police in finding the murderer of this child. Planned Parenthood’s agenda is one of treating and teaching others to treat tender children as a commodity to be kept or disposed of at will. They ought not be allowed to be the arbiters in matters of children and justice. One would hope that the appeals court will demand the requested information without delay, with the threat of search and seizure if Planned Parenthood defies the court. But, alas, that is pretty much asking that sanity return to the courts.

Allan Wafkowski
Pomton Lakes, NJ

Forest Thinning and Erosion
Re: “Fight Fire With Logging?”
8/1/02

As an environmentalist, avid hiker, and river rafter, I think that the major issue within the thinning of our forests is the subsequent sediment flow into our lakes and rivers. It is well documented via controlled studies that decreased ground cover leads to erosion.

Derrick Ransom