Letters to the Editor 5/11/2022

Reflections of a mom

To the Editor:

I have been blessed to have had two moms. My mama was my everything for 27 years. She was the one who kissed my boo-boos. She was the one who taught me about life. She was the one I went to talk about my latest crush. She was the one who would do late-night runs to the local fast-food joint to get our favorite snack, and then we’d go home and sit in the driveway talking. I remember my dad coming out around midnight, putting his hands on his hips, seeing us in the driveway, walking back in the house, and turning the front porch light on, resigned that it would probably be another hour before we came inside. Moms are great for that.

Cancer took my mama, but I knew there was still much for me to learn from a “mom.” Two years after I said goodbye to my mama, my daddy married a woman who had been close to our family. I was grateful to find that my time with a “mom” was not over. Who would have thought that today my stepmom has been my mom for as long as my mama was? But it’s true. I have been blessed with the wisdom of two precious women.

Today, I am the mom of three amazing children. Two I carried and gave birth to, and one I had hoped for before my husband and I ever married. The two I carried are amazing people with incredible hearts of compassion. I pray daily that I can be the kind of mom to them that I experienced with my own mama. One who taught and loved them well.

When our two children were younger, we realized that our family wasn’t complete, and so we began the journey of adoption. I was excited to love and teach this new addition to our family. Rarely a day passes, though, when I don’t remember that this beautiful child would not be here with me if not for the sacrifice that one woman, our child’s birth mom, made.

When I look at our daughter, I don’t see my husband and me in her features, but I hug her and talk to her, and I see that great heart of compassion for others. I see the hobbies and activities she gravitates to, and I wonder: Are these things part of us, or are they part of that precious DNA from her birth parents, or both? I may never know. But I am so grateful to be her mom.

Robin Gerke

Abortion rights

To the Editor:

An adult man who decides he wants to stop producing sperm can do so with a good conscience. He has a right to privacy; he is not queried on his state of mind and he does not need permission from his wife or parents. He has no fear of having a subpoena served for his action taken to stop producing sperm per any national or state law.

An adult woman currently has the right to avoid pregnancies via contraception, or to end a pregnancy via a “morning after” pill or an abortion procedure, for whatever her reason. As with the man, an abortion is a procedure on her body, she has a right to privacy, and she does not expect a subpoena afterwards. However, in some states, she will be interrogated and may need permission from the “father” or her parents for either the right to have contraception or an abortion procedure.

Prior to 1857, notably after the founding of our nation, there was no question that a woman could have access to an abortion. It was considered women’s business as much as bearing and rearing children was. But things changed when the newly formed male dominated American Medical Association did not like competition from midwifery for attending to women’s health issues, including abortion, and so the AMA lobbied to make abortions illegal, midwifery illegal, and both under state control.

It had nothing to do with religion or assuring women’s health; it was about revenues.

For 114 years, women would not have legal access to an abortion and only the wealthy had access to safe abortions. In 1973, Roe vs. Wade, the U. S. Supreme Court decision, assured a woman’s right to have access to a safe abortion should she so choose with the unfair exception to Indigenous women per federal laws.

Today, 2022, we find women who seek abortions are under dire threat. In a few states, in this, our “land of the free and home of the brave,” a woman who has made one of the biggest decisions in her life to have an abortion, may be bounty-hunted, accused of murder, could be jailed, would be tried, may be sentenced to prison, and might end up on death row. No matter her reasoning; too many children already, rape, incest, health considerations, financial considerations. Her choice is a complex, deeply difficult, and a never forgotten decision she makes, and then she is criminally accused and judged!

Three questions for your serious consideration: Regarding contraception, are sperm less concerning than ova in preventing a pregnancy? Does the difference in men’s rights vs. women’s to decide what is done to their own bodies appear equitable to you? Do you think that if men also had wombs, that they would have ever come to the conclusion that abortion should be illegal?

Susan G. Cobb

Support McLeod-Skinner

To the Editor:

So Mr. Schrader has worked in Congress to remove hobbles from racehorses, but consistently hobbles Democrats by voting against clean water acts eight times, against lower emission standards, against minimum wage, against COVID relief stimulus money, against banning pesticides in waterways, against worker bargaining rights, and against negotiating drug prices with Medicare. He continues to accept millions from corporate PACS of big pharma and fossil fuel, and oppose rental assistance, easing veterans’ debts, and forcing EPA to remove lead contamination from water.

Even after losing two elections to serve Oregonians, Jamie McLeod-Skinner didn’t retreat, but jumped right into serving on state committees/boards, plunged into fire relief action for housing, federal assistance, and immediate relocation of victims in Talent, while continuing her mediation business in areas of conflict, especially water usage, critical to Oregon! She was raised by a single mom so knows struggle, served resettling refugees in Europe, earned and paid for degrees in engineering, law and planning, so values education, and she listens! Though she loves horses, like Schrader, she works hardest for people.

Please vote Jamie!

Wendie Vermillion