Reader feedback 2.5.03

The ‘Roe’ story

This year we mark the 30th anniversary of Roe v Wade. In your
January 15 issue, you describe the “Jane Roe” of the case as “a
pregnant, single woman.” There’s more to the story.

                  “Roe”
is actually Norma McCorvey, who is now an outspoken opponent of abortion. In
1969, though, unmarried, poor, and desperate after finding herself pregnant
again, she tried to get an abortion. She went to attorney Sarah Weddington, who
she heard knew where to get one. McCorvey now admits that she lied about having
been raped in order to increase her chances of getting an abortion. But she
says that Weddington — who herself had had an abortion — also lied to her
about not knowing where to get one.

                  In
her 1997 book, “Won by Love,” McCorvey says that though Weddington
“had passed herself off as my friend, in reality she used me.” McCorvey
explains in the book that Weddington “needed a pregnant woman who would
sign the affidavit. If she told me how and where to get an abortion, she
wouldn’t have had a plaintiff.” And, McCorvey says, Weddington knew about
the rape lie even as she argued the case before the Supreme Court in 1972.0

                  Thus
the Roe decision grew out of lies and the exploitation of a troubled young
woman. That does not reflect well on a movement that claims to champion the
rights of women.

                  Lee Strong, Downsview Drive, Rochester

I was disturbed by several points in Chris Busby’s
“Chipping Away at Roe” (January 22):

                  First,
he refers to pro-life people throughout the article as “anti-choice”
and to pro-choice people as “defenders of a woman’s right to choose.”
This language is unbalanced. Could he refer to “pro-lifers” as
“abortion opponents” or at least as “opponents of a woman’s
right to choose”?

                  Second,
in his discussion of abortion legislation, he didn’t bother to refer to the
voting record of Congressman John LaFalce, a pro-life Democrat. LaFalce had a
Spencerport office and represented more Rochesterians than Congressman Amo
Houghton, a pro-choice Republican, during the last congressional year, yet
Busby refers to Houghton’s voting record. (By the way, several other key and
very liberal Democrats — like Senators James Byrd and Daniel P. Moynihan —
have opposed “partial birth abortion.”)

                  Third,
Mr. Busby quotes numerous times from the National Organization for Women fact
sheets and a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman but he not once gets an opinion from a pro-life source.

                  Thank
you for confronting the abortion issue in City.
Our hope is that next time you will be more unbiased in your journalistic
approach to this highly sensitive life issue.

                  Jessica C. Shanahan, Allens Creek Road,
Rochester (Shanahan is president of Feminists for Life of New York.)

I used to think “If you don’t believe in abortion,
don’t have one” was a good slogan. A better one might be: ” No one
should be forced to have a baby. No one.”

                  Philip Ferrara, Rochester

Regarding “Choice Under Siege” (January 22): I have seen and
heard demonstrations and fanaticism on both sides of the abortion issue. I am a
firm believer in reincarnation, which has been a part of Hindu and Buddhist
traditions for thousands of years and was also taught in the early Christian
church.

                  The
only way your soul can get back “home” is to balance your karmic accounts.
You need to pay your debts to everyone you have wronged in all lifetimes. And
to do that, you need to be alive at the right time and in the right place so
you can meet the people you have karma with. You can pay your debts only if you
have a physical body. When a pregnancy is terminated, the soul is denied the
opportunity to get back to earth at the right time and in the right place.

                  The
law of karma is impersonal. If we deny a soul the opportunity for life, we may
one day find ourselves in the same position: waiting on the other side, ready
to return, only to be denied birth in a physical body.

                  Barbara Mennie, Rochester

Yuppy saviors

I have nothing against bars and nightclubs, but I fail to
see how a collection of yuppies drinking and rubbing elbows will do anything
positive for anyone (except the socially accepted drug dealers that are the bar
owners).

                  I am
disappointed that you failed to recognize the ails of our city — such as bad
schools, deteriorating neighborhoods, and violent crime — as facets of the
psychological and economic war on the Rochester black man.

                  Had
it been 70 black twenty-somethings walking together down East Avenue, how long
would it take the police to shake them down and break them up, probably in
response to some panicked business owner programmed by the media and social
archetypes to see the black man as a criminal or a drug dealer?

                  I
guess it would be kind of silly to address drugs as a tool of oppression when
RATS (Rochester Area 20-Somethings) are going to save the city one beer at a
time.

                  With
this in mind, I would like to know who on your staff was responsible for the
highly offensive play on words, “Spike Lee Rolls Another Joint” on your cover.
Not only did you perpetuate the stereotype of a drug-using, criminal black man,
you disgraced someone who is not content to just get drunk to decompress from
his nine to five.

                  You
disgraced someone who is not afraid to go against the grain and confront
institutionalized racism. And you didn’t even include one word about his movie
in the whole issue!

                  C.
Morey, Grosvenor Road, Rochester

                  Editor’s
note: The Spike Lee cover teaser was, of course, an error. We had a review
ready for publication; when at the last minute, the distributor postponed the
film’s opening, we yanked the review — but failed to change our cover line.

Seeking Jennifer

This is how I read City:
I search for an article written by Jennifer Loviglio. If I find her, I’ll sit
down and read; if I don’t, it gets tossed for later. It’s been that way for
some time now.

                  Perhaps
it’s because it is refreshing to hear a woman’s voice and experience amidst all
the male banter that otherwise fills the pages. And certainly, it’s because her
writing is intelligent, daring, interesting, and humorous.

                  I
doubt I’m alone. I would love to read her more and more.

                  Carmen Signorino, Rochester

Greens and schools

I am quite proud of being a graduate of a Rochester city
school, but recent School Board events make me quite concerned about my
hometown district.

                  City recently quoted School Board Vice
President Rob Brown as saying that the district hasn’t had “an inventive way to
deal with” the lack of success in urban districts “in years” (“The Great
Divide,” January 8). I think that sums up the problem. That is why I am running
for School Board as a member of the Green Party.

                  As a
member of the board, I will propose that we attack the root causes of our
district’s problems. The board must call on the entire community, particularly
the alumni of the City School District, to pitch in to help our poorest
children achieve. We have an active labor community in Rochester that should be
utilized in the education of our students as well.

                  The
board must also use every means possible to get out from under the tyranny of
the state and federal governments. This includes lobbying, resolutions, and
legal action. We must get politicians and bureaucrats out of the classroom to
give teachers a chance to teach. The board must also work to dispel the
illusion that high test scores mean real learning.

                  Most
realize that overwhelming poverty is academically paralyzing a majority of our
students. City Hall is supposed to take care of that. The School Board can help
by being leaders in getting rid of lead paint in homes, educating parents about
child development, increasing conflict-resolution programs in schools, and
dividing all high schools and (soon to be) junior highs into small academies.
Many of these academies should be developed with School Without Walls as the
model.

                  We
can do all of this and more, not by adding layers of bureaucracy but by
eliminating inefficient methods of administration and replacing outdated
methods of operating in and out of the classroom.

                  Don’t
worry, Mr. Brown; help is on the way. If you and the rest of the board cannot
wait until November, please feel free to go to www.schoolboardforkids.org and
take whatever ideas you would like from my platform. You can even take credit
for it. After all, it’s our children that count, right?

                  People
who want more information may visit the web site or call 732-9067.

                  David Atias, Park Avenue, Rochester

Buddhist views

I am writing in regard to the letter of Frank Howard’s (The
Mail, January 8), which was itself a response to City’s “Thou Shalt Not Kill” (December 24).

                  Being
a practitioner, I found Mr. Howard’s reference incomplete and therefore as
inaccurate a representation of Buddhist thinking as he suggests Bodhin
Kjolhede’s to be.

                  To
say that His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche calls President Bush a Bodhisattva
without clarifying the teachings that precede such thinking is reckless. And to
exclude the Dalai Lama’s plea to President Bush not to engage in violent means is irresponsible.

                  If City wishes to portray Buddhist views on
war and politics, perhaps it would benefit the editors and readers to find
sources that reflect Buddhist teachings directly and not interpretations of the
teachings.

                  Gretchen Targee, Merriman Street, Rochester

In response to Frank Howard’s letter (The Mail, January 8):
When has there been, at any time in the history of Buddhism, an acknowledged
Bodhisattva — that is, a highly spiritually evolved being characterized by
tremendous compassion — who knowingly caused the suffering of thousands, as
our president and his policies have done?

                  The
words of the “please allow me to stay in your wonderful country” Rinpoche aside,
Mr. Howard’s insipid form of spirituality does nothing but play to the
stereotype of Eastern religion as leisure-class obfuscation and escapism and
effectively marginalizes itself further.

                  JD
Downs, Holley Street, Brockport

Utica Joe

In your January 15 issue, you called guitarist Joe Bonamassa
a Syracuse native (“Short Takes”). Joe is from New York Mills, which is closer
to Utica than to Syracuse, and not far from my hometown of Rome. I respect
Rochesterians for their hometown pride, and I know that you’ll respect us
Central New Yorkers for ours. Smokin’ Joe Bonamassa has been a source of pride
for the Utica-Rome area’s music scene since he started making waves as a young
prodigy. Thank you for profiling him and adding to the awareness of all our Upstate
New York musical treasures.

                  Paul Blackburn, Rundel Park, Rochester

Writing to City

We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester 14607.

                  Our
guidelines: We don’t publish anonymous letters — and we ask that you include
your street name and city/town/village. While we don’t restrict length, letters
of under 350 words have a greater chance of being published. We do edit letters
for clarity and brevity. And in general we don’t publish letters (or longer
“op-ed” pieces) from the same writer more often than once every three months.

This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2003.