Letters on health booth, abortion, sustainable energy, Fair Tax, sports coverage

Stop at health booth at State Fair

There’s nothing better than a visit to the Kansas State Fair. I hope you’ll join me in making a stop at the Hutchinson Clinic and the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Health Awareness and Screening Booth in the Sunflower South Building. There you can learn how to protect yourself against cancer, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

This year the clinic is challenging us all to take action toward better health; visitors to the booth will get an orange in exchange for taking a pledge to improve our diet and exercise. The clinic will also provide information about early detection through screenings and other wellness information.

So come by the health booth. It’s just around the corner from my booth. Stop in, say “hello,” and let’s all work to prevent cancer.

Misleading claims

On my morning walk recently, I found four scattered pages of information, at the bottom of which read, “A Better Choice – Training Manual 2014.” A Better Choice is, according to its website, a Catholic crisis pregnancy resource center in Wichita.

The pages I found contained inaccurate and misleading descriptions of various forms of birth control and of abortion. There isn’t room to list them all here, so I’ll just quote one:

“Most often a woman will feel the consequences of her decision within days of her abortion. If they don’t appear immediately, they will appear as she gets older. Emotional scars include unexplained depression, loss of emotions, hardening of the spirit, thwarted maternal instincts (which may lead to child neglect or abuse later in life), intense feelings of guilt and regret, suicidal ideation.”

Contrast that with the findings of a study published in the journal PLOS ONE on July 8 titled, “Decision Rightness and Emotional Responses to Abortion in the United States: A Longitudinal Study.” This study followed 667 women who had abortions between 2008 and 2010 in 30 U.S. clinics. It found that 99 percent of the women felt they made the right choice in terminating their pregnancies.

Study researcher Corinne Rocca said: “Claims that women suffer from psychological harm from their abortions, and that large proportions of women come to regret their abortions over time, at least in these data, are simply not true.”

Phase out fossil fuels

In 2008, Kansas had 19 underground natural gas storage fields, 18 in depleted oil and gas fields and one in a salt cavern. The 2001 explosion occurred in the salt cavern, but could have happened at any facility (“Inspect gas storage,” Sept. 9 Eagle Editorial).

“Accidents” are inevitable in the production, transport, storage and use of fossil fuels, regardless of the diligence of maintenance and oversight. Most accidents are relatively small and go unreported. Some, like the BP oil spill, capture media attention and have huge social and environmental consequences.

We could put all this behind us by phasing out our fossil-based economy and phasing in one based on sustainable energy. Technological and logistical innovations that make wind, solar and geothermal energy increasingly inexpensive, coupled with a looming climate catastrophe, are already changing the national energy landscape.

Government can help, but not with more regulations and mandates. It can assess a fee on the carbon in fuels and return it to households as dividend checks. This would hasten a market-driven transition to clean energy. Analysis indicates that jobs would be created and public health, the climate, the environment and the economy would benefit.

Won’t pay more

The writer of “Sales tax shock” (Sept. 8 Letters to the Editor) regarding the Fair Tax mistakenly assumes he’ll be paying far more for merchandise and services after its passage.

The Fair Tax is a replacement of the federal income tax. As such, it not only eliminates all federal withholding from your paycheck – which means you take home the whole thing, giving you more buying power – it eliminates all the hidden, embedded taxes in goods and services.

These embedded taxes add 18 to 30 percent to the costs you now pay. In any competitive marketplace, retail prices will fall, so the addition of the Fair Tax at the register will make your final out-the-door price roughly the same.

This is all simply explained at Fairtax.org – along with many other questions and concerns.

Share the spotlight

I like high school football as much as the next person and I appreciate the coverage it gets in our local paper and newscasts. But how about more coverage of volleyball, cross-country, girls’ golf and tennis, and soccer? I would much rather read about any of these high school teams and athletes than about people who are delinquent on their taxes.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on health booth, abortion, sustainable energy, Fair Tax, sports coverage."