Diane M. Starkey, Rochester

To the Editor:

Re: Alicia Preston’s rant on women’s being used as pawns in an array of political movements. ("Women exploiting women as political pawns," Jan. 15)

I think she needs to pay more attention to the news. Just because she was never abused or assaulted (?) she has no authority to disparage those who choose to bring attention to the problem. #MeToo has raged across the country and the world.

Hollywood has presented many films on ethical and moral problems: Gentlemen’s Agreement was presented decades ago about how Jews were discriminated against in the USA through the 1950s and beyond, and led to more open discussion and eventually the addition of religion to the anti-discrimination laws. In spite of the First Amendment, we have a lot to learn about how to be more fair and respectful of each other.

Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, was a Black female journalist who chose to highlight the attempted genocide of fellow Negroes in the country — not just the South — by documenting reports of their murders in papers published by white men.

We have passed beyond having to rely on men to vote for us, report for us, and advocate for us. That is what this Women’s March is about.

I did look up Seacoast Resistance and found out its goals. Basically, it is attempting to rally concern and calls for action against any person, group or government representative that fails to answer to the truth. To deny the truth for one’s own gain, or to protect others’ interests, when the public good is being cast aside is what this group wants to publicize. It also encourages involvement in local politics.

Any other group that has been treated to second, third and worse class status is invited. They all have women in their groups!

You aver that “women’s rights groups” are whiners that want birth control to be part of universal health care. I ask you, if you can’t control the use of your own body, what rights do you have. Rape happens. Women are still killed or abandoned for becoming pregnant. Shouldn’t they be able to get contraceptives?

Scholarship through college level is a standard of public education in many European countries. We have government loans, which are nice, but don’t cover trade school in most cases — I could be wrong. Europe hasn’t crashed yet; it's more productive.

Health care has also not caused the fall of civilization. Here it is a privilege of the wealthy or well-connected. It is a national disgrace that a Western country of our position in the world have such a criminally low infant survival rate.

www.slate.com/authors.christina_cauterucci.html.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831678

Feb 4, 2010 – “Twelve years after publishing a landmark study that turned tens of thousands of parents around the world against the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine because of an implied link between vaccinations and autism, The Lancet, (British Medical publication), has retracted the paper”}. [See also: 60th anniversary of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., in 2015. "A few months earlier, a measles outbreak that originated there convinced California to reconsider its childhood vaccination policy." Credit; Mario Anzuoni/Reuters by Emily Oster and Geoffrey Kocks, Jan. 16, 2018, article on Google.]

Some rumor of a crackpot doctor, since decertified and his ‘studies’ discredited, has caused a rash of MMR vaccines to be withheld from the vulnerable infants needing them.

Any plague starts with a weakness. We will be defeated from within if we do not see to the full health of all our citizens, rich or poor.

Women, and no one else with sense, do not want “every need”, but the basic rights of being human. Child care cannot be provided by those not trusted, not competent, and unpaid if both women and men need work to care for their families.

What employer, or state, is powerful enough to enforce requirements of care workers for our children, disabled, and elderly, as well as wages that allow these people to live moderately comfortable lives? What about paid sick leave policies that allow for care of close relatives as well as parental leave for both parents? What is so outrageous about asking for consideration to those providing -the- working class of future generations?

As for the ‘tax cuts’, again: You aren’t paying much attention to the truth -except, perhaps, your own interpretation of it. I challenge you, Ms. Preston, and those agreeing with you; research these issues more thoroughly. I strongly ask that you read the book, If Women Counted, by Marilyn Waring of Australia.

Diane M. Starkey, Rochester