Teacher sex case
It is difficult to understand how a 25-year-old Florida teacher who has sex with her 14-year-old student can avoid jail, unless you understand that the teacher is female, the student male and our system is broken. The media attention on the student drove him to refuse to participate in the case, forcing the prosecution to plea bargain. The attorney for the teacher cited her attractiveness as a reason that she should not go to prison, because it would be like “putting a piece of raw meat in with the lions.” Perhaps in this case, it would be like sending a child to school.
Roy Ellis, Castle Rock
Health care reform
Re: “Salazar proposes health panel,” Nov. 23 news story.
We applaud the recent announcement that Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are joining together to push for a high-level national commission to reform our broken health care system.
Far too many of our Colorado neighbors – 766,000, to be precise – lack access to health care insurance. These Coloradans are forced, by a largely profit driven health care system, to live sicker and die younger. This is immoral and should not be the reality in such a wealthy nation.
Additional hundreds of thousands of Coloradans are underinsured and most of the rest of us live our lives as anxiously insured, worrying if the rising costs will force ourselves and our families to give up our health care coverage.
Salazar and McCain’s proposed new national commission will hopefully transcend the political paralysis and insurance-industry lobbying that continues to block health care reform. We thank them for taking this first step but challenge them to take a further, much bigger step to support a national health care system that would guarantee the right to health care for all who live in this nation.
Rationing health care – as with our present reality of the crisis of the uninsured and underinsured – is immoral. It’s time for health care for all.
Francoise Mbabazi, Health Care Organizing Coordinator, Colorado Progressive Coalition, Denver
Morning-after pill
Re: “Politics slur FDA judgment,” Nov. 24 editorial.
The Post overestimates the Food and Drug Administration’s capacity for unbiased science. The agency is an arm of a political apparatus currently influenced by anti-abortion conservatives, so it is really no surprise that every stonewalling tactic is being used to deny Americans access to a useful contraceptive. It is time we called for a free-science establishment, just like we have a free press. It is time for the separation of church and state to be widened to include separation of science and state. Only then will medical decisions be released from the chilling grip of politics.
Bill Decker, San Diego
U.S. terror suspect
Re: “U.S. terror suspect charged,” Nov. 23 news story.
I imagine Jose Padilla is thankful he is not a citizen of some uncivilized country where the rule of law is applied inconsistently by a whimsical ruler – unless, like me, he is having a hard time distinguishing the United States of 2005 with that other kind of country. How can we pretend to export democracy to the Middle East when democracy within our borders has eroded so badly? Is Padilla a U.S. citizen or not, or is the outrageous treatment he has received reserved only for Americans with the wrong religion, the wrong skin color and the wrong family name?
Catherine Wiley, Denver
