To the Editor:
In response to Eric Francis' Planet Waves "Shades of Feminine" in the 6/04 issue:

Eric prefaces his call for a sexual revolution by illustrating the triumphs of a "New Woman" who was able to more fully participate in life only once she was able to extricate herself from the bedroom is confusing indeed...as are low-rider pants, chronically exposed midriffs, and cell-phone addiction, which, while keeping people talking, does nothing for communication.

No, Eric.  The "truth about war" is not just emerging.  War is agenda and control.  War is death, destruction, and pain, and has always been so.  No, Eric.  The Kama Sutra and talk, talk, talking about desire and what we need need need won't lead to discovery.  It won't encourage even the most simple expressions of acknowledging  another human being - a smile, a touch on the arm.

Sensuality needs no words.  Like peace, it demands the absence of an agenda.

- Maggie Trout, Poughkeepsie, NY

To the Editor:
As a woman who has had an abortion I feel compelled to respond to your article "Like A Prayer" (6/04).  It troubles me that good-intentioned women who probably never had an abortion are misleading worried and vulnerable women.  There are many questions surrounding abortion that no one can ever truly answer for another woman, but perhaps those of us who have [had an abortion] can be a source of information and guidance to those who are facing that choice.

I have not known one woman for whom the decision to have an abortion was based on religious or spiritual dictums, but rather more practical concerns such as marital status, finances, or age.  All three factors were very important in my choice; my partner and I were each 18 years old and barely out of high school.  We had no means to raise a child, and our families would not have shouldered the burden.

I have never regretted my decision.  It would have been worse to keep a child I was ill equipped to provide for, or to participate in what is essentially an Aryan adoption system that overtly favors healthy white babies when there are millions of healthy children "of color" needing homes.

My message to the Pregnancy Support Center is this: You have no business asserting that your so-called "peer counselors" are educating other women about the "facts of abortion" unless each and every one of them can verify that they, too, have had an abortion.  Your Scriptures and abstinence-as-holy-virginity delusions offer little real help to women facing this decision, and only perpetuate the stigma associated with abortion so prevalent in society and the minds of women.  Your good intentions don't apply outside your offices and don't serve a practical purpose in the real lives of the women you "counsel".  In fact, good intentions are notorious for paving the road to hell.

I will forever be grateful for the non-judgmental information I received from Planned Parenthood when I made the choice to have an abortion.

- Name Withheld, Kingston

To the Editor:
With great sorrow I write you this letter.  I found your featured article titled "Like a Prayer: God & Abortion at the Pregnancy Support Center" (6/04) by Molly Maeve Eagan to be deeply offensive, especially coming from your organization.  Given the vastly diverse articles and advertising found in your past issues, I had been under the impression that you embraced diversity in the region, especially as it pertained to healing and spirituality.

After talking to a number of my friends concerning Chronogram, it had always been our impression that it "celebrated diversity" in matters of religion and difference of thought, but it is quite apparent from this article, and from the editor's admission to its "featured" location, that this is not the case.  On the contrary, the article had such an obvious scathing overtone that the apparent hateful opinions of the author were clearly evident.  It is ironic that such malicious writing would appear in a magazine considered by many folks in the region to support the medicinal arts.  It is truly reprehensible!

As my wife and I have always understood as expectant parents, our unborn children were indeed listening and aware of our singing and playing music to them while they were developing in the womb.  The entire birthing process, from beginning to end, is nothing shy of a miracle.  Every parent I've ever met has acknowledged that.

It is truly sad to think that you would allow such writing to diminish the value of children of any age, and those who support them and their parents.  It's truly a shame to promote yourselves as healers and yet allow such abject and spiteful words to spoil your pages.

Our children were born at Northern Dutchess with physicians from the Rhinebeck Women's Health Center.  Our children continue to attend Music Together classes and my wife and I often visit the many restaurants and establishments listed in your advertisements.  I will be very interested in their view on this article and how they view Chronogram as it supports or undermines their child center business.

- Peter Jentsch, Rosendale