READERS WRITE

Don’t push condoms on Africa

Obviously Mike Luckovich hasn’t looked around at the hard dose of reality that is the fallout of the “sexual revolution” of the ’60s and ’70s (cartoon, @issue, March 19).

With a 40 percent national unwed-mother birthrate, 3 percent HIV rate in Washington D.C., STD rates at astronomical numbers and over 1 million abortions performed each year, the use of condoms as either birth control or STD control in the U.S. is a complete failure.

With the wide availability of condoms, be it at schools, pharmacies or doctor’s offices, shouldn’t those numbers be a lot lower? Pushing our condom policies on developing countries in Africa only promotes our mistaken notion of “free love.” Explaining that there is nothing free about it should be a starter, instead of giving a thumb’s up and a condom.

CHARLES JAKUBCZAK

Dallas, Ga.

Union problems revisited

The secretary-treasurer of the Georgia AFL-CIO describes opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act with the obligatory evil grouping of “corporate front groups, billionaire investors and many corporate CEOs” (“Chamber no friend of Free Choice Act,” Letters, March 16). Should we then call the proponents of EFCA “thugs, criminals and Jimmy-Hoffa-types” since in the history of labor unions there have been multiple examples of all three?

When the letter writer shows an interest in ending the childish name-calling and demonstrates a willingness to start an actual dialogue, perhaps he can answer why membership in labor unions has been in a steady decline since the 1960s, why unions are so determined to destroy the secret ballot in company elections and why union members get zero say in how their collected dues are spent. Facts are stubborn things.

ALLAN DeNIRO

Roswell

Believers must do more for religion

I must respond to Leonard Pitts’ column (“Religion’s decline” @issue, March 18). Thank goodness (or thank God) that what we know of God is much more than what we read in the headlines. If “religion” is declining, it’s possibly because those of us who are active in our churches are not sharing with others the good news of what we believe.

FRANCES SHUMAKE

Winder

Put extra Ga. 400 funds to work

Congratulations to the Ga. 400 folks for having enough money to pay off the bonds early. Now maybe they can use those extra funds to correct some of the original design flaws in Ga. 400 itself.

First, please correct the original omission of ramps from 400 South to I-85 North and from I-85 South to 400 North. The traffic trying to make that transition via surface streets clogs the Lenox-Buford Highway-Sidney Marcus interchange daily, making them nearly impassable at times. What a continuing headache for the local residents.

Second, please correct the left-hand merge from I-285 onto 400 North. There has never been enough room for traffic to enter 400 without endangering fast-moving traffic already on 400. A dedicated lane would be great.

Third, please correct the length and design of the merge from 400 South onto I-85 South. I am not sure how anyone thought three lanes of traffic traveling at 55+ mph could safely merge into I-85 South in about 150 yards. Dedicated lanes would be great here too. Three worthwhile projects for those “extra” 400 funds.

JOHN THOMPSON

Atlanta

MARTA will just ask for more

Allow me to translate Sam Massell’s opinion column (“No reason now to deny MARTA its sales tax revenue,” @issue, March 17): “Let MARTA spend down its capital funds, and when that’s gone they will come begging to the state for money, because you owe us.”

RON N. BUTLER

Powder Springs

Moms were good nurses in the ’70s

When I came to Marietta in September of 1977, my daughter was in middle-school and there were no paid school nurses. In 1978, I began as a volunteer school nurse at my daughter’s middle school and then went on to be a school nurse at the elementary school where my second daughter was enrolled.

In those days, there was a monthly schedule where mothers volunteered their time as school nurses. As I remember it, it worked very well and it was a positive aspect to have family members actively involved in their children’s education as well as the community.

JEAN WOLLAM

Marietta

Responses to “The world’s changed so fast, I can’t keep up,” @issue, March 16.

Centrist views much appreciated

Wonders never cease! I have been a subscriber to the AJC in excess of 20 years and Jay Bookman has finally written a column with which I agree or didn’t find to be biased. Bookman’s column shows him viewing the U.S. and world from a responsible centrist position rather than spewing liberal gibberish. Way to go, Jay! Maybe you have taken off the rose-colored glasses for the improvement of the AJC and its readers.

DAN FRAZIER

Fayetteville

Liberal policies source of troubles

Jay Bookman once again misses the real point when in the final paragraph he laments that, “we have so indebted ourselves to China and others that they now have influence over our national policies.”

Doesn’t he know that the reason we owe trillions of dollars to China is that our liberal government keeps growing and growing and growing. Like the proverbial bunny, it just keeps spending more money, making our problems worse, not better.

JENNIFER FANTIS

Marietta