Cursory treatment of issues in Middle East not helpful
The presumptiveness demonstrated by Kristina Francisco in her attempt to reduce the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to two explanatory columns is astounding. Her assumption that most students are largely uninformed is probably correct. But her cursory columns are entirely unhelpful and represent offensively shoddy work from a journalist with four years of training.
Adam Riff
Weinberg sophomore
NU students are not egoists as some make them out as
In response to Kelly Robinson’s letter in Tuesday’s Daily: “Then leave.”
I’m sure NU will be the lesser for your leaving, as indicated by the pompous, know-it-all attitude that you so eloquently displayed. Besides, what state school wouldn’t be proud to add you to the ranks of their “more caring” and all around better, be it apparently less intelligent, student population?
What kind of character bashing nonsense was that anyway? Have you not the common decency to step back and realize that the majority of students on this campus are not the self-involved egotists you make them out to be? Thank you for that unnecessary and misplaced slap.
Marissa J. Gatza
Weinberg sophomore
Abortion ‘facts’ misleading, ignores virtues of adoption
As I walked to class this Tuesday, I noticed a fresh supply of colored paper taped on the grounds and hung from trees and bushes with clothes hangers. These fliers, put up by an abortion rights group, presented facts and statistics concerning abortion. All the information presented on their fliers obviously had an abortion rights slant, and I thought it would be appropriate to offer the other side to the abortion issue. The group’s facts and my counters are as follows:
– “Each year, an estimated 80,000 women die from complications of unsafe abortion, accounting for at least 13 percent of global maternal mortality. Keep abortion safe and legal.” Each year, an estimated 46 million unborn children die from abortion, whether it is “safe” or “unsafe.”
– “Globally, four in 10 pregnancies are unplanned. Wouldn’t you want a choice?” Globally, 10 out of every 10 abortions result in the death of an unborn child. As a survivor of abortion, aren’t you glad your parents chose that you’d get a chance live?
– “Women of the 15 to 19 age group are 24 times more likely to die from childbirth than from first trimester abortion.” This statistic is rather distorted. It focuses on women in impoverished nations with poor health care and underdeveloped hospitals. For example, in Nepal approximately 1,500 young women die for every 100,000 live births. Abortions in third-world countries, however, only count for 22 percent of all abortions each year. In the United States, only 7.5 young women die for every 100,000 births. But abortions in developed countries such as the United States contribute the remaining 78 percent of abortions each year. The truth is this: More than 99 percent of the mothers that die from childbirth come from underdeveloped nations with poor health care. It would not be any healthier for these women to be getting abortions in light of the quality of medical care available to them.
– “Between 120 and 150 million married women want to limit or space out their pregnancies, but lack the information and services to do so.” Abortion is not a form of birth control. Women who consider abortion as such and find themselves regularly getting pregnancies “terminated” are even more susceptible to reproductive system damage that’s already prevalent in one-time abortion patients.
– “Before 1973, your ‘choice’ was between a knitting needle and a metal hanger.” Sigh. This Roe v. Wade reference is tasteless propaganda that completely ignores the wonders of abstinence and adoption, two fine choices that are so often overlooked.
If you’re reading this, you weren’t chosen to be done away with out of inconvenience. Think about that.
Mathias Muschal
Weinberg freshman
