Letters

Truthful sex ed needed in schools

So the Health Centers of Nevada, a nonprofit group, can come into the high schools only if they assure the School Board that they will maintain the district's strict ban on providing any "family planning" or reproductive health care. This enforces a conservative religious bias that wants to maintain the students' ignorance about the facts of life. Is it any wonder that we have such a high rate of teenage pregnancy?

We desperately need some enlightened, responsible people to run for the School Board to break this maintenance of ignorance. Even Sen. Reid has said that if we want to cut the number of abortions, we need truthful sex education in the schools. A majority of parents want this also. Yet the ignorance is maintained. The School Board, to my way of thinking, is partially responsible for our teenage pregnancy rate, cases of venereal disease and the abortions of girls who seek this way out of unplanned pregnancies. Education is the only answer. You'd think a School Board would know that.

--Shirley Braverman

The mayor likes to drink. So what?

What is wrong with these stuffy people? They want everyone in the world to be a good example for their children so their children can learn to live in a world that doesn't exist. Our mayor is a refreshing character with a weakness for telling the truth. That's one trait that endears him to his constituency. So he drinks in moderation and enjoys it. What's wrong with that? I was raised in a farm town where one uncle drank to excess, spit tobacco and cussed a blue streak. Another cousin was a scarlet lady who sang on stage and smoked cigars. I knew I was not allowed to act as they did, yet I loved them and understood they were good people. Their antics in my childhood are now some of my warmest memories.

This phony indignation of the do-gooders is something they do to feel superior. They might try educating their children to the fact that not everyone is the same and a little tolerance for those who are different is a valuable asset. The children might learn that one or two objectionable traits does not make a person bad. They might also learn that not everything Mom and Dad object to when they're kids is really that awful. Oscar is a real person and my favorite mayor. I'd be glad to have him appear in my granddaughter's classroom any day. A lesson in the realities of the world is always welcome.

--Jay Van Dam

Ending drug war can ease prison crowding

Nevada is not the only state grappling with overcrowded prisons ["When in Doubt, Lock 'Em Up," Randall G. Shelden, March 10]. Throughout the nation, states facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. A study conducted by the RAND Corp. found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.48 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars.

The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does too. Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in antisocial behavior.

Turning drug users into unemployable ex-cons is a senseless waste of tax dollars. It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin treating all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is. Destroying the futures and families of citizens who make unhealthy choices doesn't benefit anyone. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

--Robert Sharpe,

Common Sense for Drug Policy,

Washington, D.C.

The last anti-meat letter Mercury will ever print

According to USDA's Economic Research Service, Americans were consuming 11 percent more food per capita in 2003 than they did in 1985. However, meat consumption during the same period rose only 7 percent for a net 4 percent loss of the food market share.

The greater food intake, satirized in the prize-winning documentary Super Size Me, is largely responsible for the current epidemic of obesity, a precursor to diabetes and heart disease.

The relative drop in meat consumption may be attributed to widespread availability of tasty, wholesome soy-based meat alternatives and to growing public awareness of the devastating impacts of meat consumption on human health, environmental quality and animal welfare.

It may also testify to the effectiveness of public diet education campaigns like "5 A Day" and "The Great American Meatout," which is observing its 20th anniversary on March 20. Their websites, at www.MeatoutMondays.org and www.5aday.com, provide recipes and other useful information for embracing a wholesome, nonviolent diet this spring.

--Martin Batinez