Letters: Strong words for LFHS, Trump admin – Lebanon Daily News – Lebanon Daily News

Lebanon Daily News 2:10 p.m. ET March 17, 2017

Support for removing Title X money from LFHS

If you're unsure about where or how to submit a letter to the editor, all of the answers can be found here. Erin Collins, Lebanon Daily News

An employee of the local birth control clinic, Lebanon Family Health Services, spoke out against passage of H.J. 43. (2-24-17) She said the law could limit family planning resources for hers and other clinics funded with Title X government money.

She said in the past 15 years, because of various local efforts and access to reproductive healthcare, Lebanon County has seen a 24-percent decrease in teen pregnancies. Title X Family Planning Agencies have been receiving funds since 1973. Why did it take over 30 years to lower the teen pregnancy rate?

She failed to mention minors don't need parental consent to get the free contraceptives and the organization also refers women for abortions.

The writer also said research has found that for every dollar spent on public family planning services $7.09 is saved on expenditures which would otherwise go toward pregnancy, delivery and child care.

In 1990 the Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood,) published a study of women receiving birth control devices through government programs at that time. It addressed the cost of government service to unplanned children but never looked at future government revenue coming from future income produced by these unplanned citizens. This means fewer new taxpayers and more costs taking care of the elderly.

In 2016 the Obama Administration issued a regulation preventing states from taking away Title X funds from organizations like Planned Parenthood and Lebanon Family Health Services. H.J. 43 would nullify this but would not eliminate family planning services to women. In recent years, several states have adopted reforms to direct federal Title X family planning money to county health departments, community health centers, or other providers, instead of organizations engaged in objectionable activities such as those provided by Planned Parenthood and Lebanon Family Health Services.

-Colleen Reilly, Lebanon

Has the Russian Revolution washed up on America's shores?

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), born in Algeria to Sephardi Jews, formulated the philosophy known as Deconstructionism. Derrida grew up during the War for Algerian Independence. As a young man he moved to France and was educated there. In the Post Modern World, Deconstructionism redirected the humanities and social sciences.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a triumph for rationalism and was carried out by Russian intellectuals before it went to the dark side. Leo Tolstoy, a monarchist, was named Hero of the Revolution. This is the reason the phrase Godless Russia appeared for decades in American political discourse. The terms anarchist and nihilist are often used in connection with Derrida.

America's worst fears peaked in the 1940s and 50s called the Red Scare. This was the period of McCarthyism and the travesty perpetrated by federal prosecutors on trumped-up charges of treason resulting in the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Public school teachers were required to take loyalty oaths.

Why are these matters important? They are important because Steve Bannon, known to be President Trump's right hand man and chief policy strategist, if not a deconstructor, is the chief wrecking ball leading a team of other wrecking balls in President Trump's government. Perhaps this is the reason the positions in the top two tiers of the state department bureaucracy have not been filled. Maybe the specter of the Russian Revolution of 1917 with the grim companions, anarchy and nihilism, has finally washed up on American shores.

-Richard D. Slick, Palmyra

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Letters: Strong words for LFHS, Trump admin - Lebanon Daily News - Lebanon Daily News