Tuesday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Reproductive rights</p> <p>EDITOR: Thank you for printing Maura Casey's commentary (“Catholic women can't stay silent any more,” Feb. 26). Her story inspires a response from outside the church.</p><p>The church has made a terrible mess, sending forth children whose shame and pain will follow them through life. Finding darkness and corruption, church officials should have humbly apologized, begging forgiveness, but instead, they have put on brocaded robes and fancy hats and told women that we should go back to serving as breeding machines, return to reproductive slavery.</p><p>Why is it when some men get themselves in trouble, the first thing they want to do is handcuff the women? Well, they'll have to catch us first. Women today have choices, build careers and vote. Some men may not like that, but that's the way it is.</p><p>In Iraq, women received free education and health care and could walk safely on the streets. When the United States toppled Saddam, that ended, and women are now imprisoned in their homes, must seek education and health care secretly and must cover themselves in black, tent-like robes when they leave home. </p><p>That could happen here, too; don't think it can't.</p><p>Every woman who feels enraged at male-dominated discussions of her reproductive life should stand up and be counted and vote for candidates who support her right to full personhood.</p><p>LOUISE YOUNG</p><p>Cloverdale</p><h3>Double standard</h3> <p>EDITOR: I do not recall a front page article that lambasted Bill Maher for his use of a derogatory name in describing Sarah Palin. While I do not condone what Rush Limbaugh said (“Obama joins in Limbaugh backlash,” Friday), he has the right to make his comments, as does Maher.</p><p>What bothers me is the double standard your paper continually advances. Is it because your liberal readers enjoy the bubble they all live in? I am so fed up with the double standard and hypocrisy embraced by the left.</p><p>ROBERT REMLINGER</p><p>Sebastopol</p><h3>Fluoridation scares</h3> <p>EDITOR: Fifty years ago, during the height of the Cold War, my Uncle Fred and Aunt Jean would visit from their home in Arkansas during Christmas. Being a staunch member of the John Birch Society, Uncle Fred would always make a point of getting my 9-year-old cousin and I off by ourselves for a moment, get down on one knee and say, “You boys will see the day when the commies take over the world.” To which we had no reply, not knowing what “commies” were.</p><p>He would then raise his index finger for emphasis and say “flouridation,” also a foreign concept to us. He did this soto voce because he knew my parents, who were rabidly liberal, would not approve.</p><p>Looking back, I am sad for my aunt and uncle who lived a very paranoid life. My cousin and I never took Uncle Fred too seriously regarding flouridation — and still don't.</p><p>NATHANIEL ROBERTS</p><p>Petaluma</p><h3>NIMBYs can opt out</h3> <p>EDITOR: Living in Sebastopol or any other city comes with costs — some financial, others social, some emotional. You'll see crime, compassion, litter, love, green cars and gross polluters. Companies will want to give you free Wi-Fi downtown or a new communications tower. People will volunteer to clean up creeks or start a farmers market, and others will have no good intentions at all. These and so much more come with living in a city.</p><p>We're not forced to live here; we've chosen to live here. Speaking up for what you believe in is your right. This is still a democracy, but a few NIMBYs shouldn't be able to make the majority have it their way or the highway. That's not very neighborly. Yes, neighbors come with a city, too.</p><p>I'm sure there are places left in our beautiful county where there's no cell reception, no electricity, and you can still drink from the creek. This may be a more comfortable place for some to live and leave the rest of us to our own demise because we also have that right. We've chosen to live in a city with neighbors and technology and the costs and benefits that come with it.</p><p>LOU GOUVEIA</p><p>Sebastopol</p>