To the editor:

With the 39th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision at hand, many Americans still seem to believe that the central issue in the abortion debate is this: At what point does human life begin?­ Frankly, nothing could be further from the truth.

When the Supreme Court issued Roe, the members of the court completely and explicitly avoided the question of when human life begins. This is exemplified by the following verbatim quote from the decision itself: “We need not resolve the difficult question of when human life begins.” Of course, the justices knew that if they would have honestly dealt with that “difficult question,” they would have never gotten away with the decision they issued.

The real question undermining the abortion debate is not when human life begins; rather, it is this: How much value do we place on human lives?­ This is especially true of the lives of those who are dependent upon others, incapable of defending themselves and no longer considered sufficiently productive.­ These groups are always the first to go when human lives are viewed as dispensable.

When we fight abortion, we are fighting for a kinder society that will respect our own lives as we approach our golden years.­ We’re fighting for a society that respects the wisdom of those who have accumulated it over their long and instructive lifetimes. That’s a fight for which none of us can afford to be AWOL.

Brad Taylor

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To the editor:

More than 200 student assistants that work on this campus expect that we will be paid on the 15th of each month.­ In the month of December, we did not get paid on time.­ Furthermore, we were not notified well-ahead of time and couldn’t make arrangements with various bill collectors.

Every other student assistant I have spoken to has been affected negatively by this. When I asked other student assistants if they would complain, I got a generally apathetic “no one will listen” response. I sent an email to payroll that did not get a response.­ I called their office and when I expressed how this is affecting us, I was met with a “what do you want me to do about it?”

My fellow student assistants were right: no one would listen.­ The uncaring payroll department has shown a blatant disregard for how their “system error” has affected the student assistants.­ But why should they care?­ Their paycheck was not affected, it doesn’t affect their everyday life, it’s not their late fee or cash advance they have to pay back and if someone is actually held accountable (not likely for a “system error”) ”” it won’t matter to the people who were impacted the most by this: the student assistants themselves.

Christopher Moss

Communication