LETTERS

...The author replies: Given the times, I probably should feel relieved that Graham accuses me of plagiarizing only myself...

...In fact, if more people were willing to accept the discipline of celibacy these days-and thus not have spouses and children to supportschools might find more takers for their low salaries...

...Shifting the context of my remarks between our interview and the finished article only served to blur these important moral and public policy issues...

...And how, for a full decade, they’ve held family planning hostage to abortion even if it meant more abortions would result...

...But there is no dishonor at stake that demands satisfaction...

...And it makes no sense to ask them to “endorse contracep tion over abortion,” presumably on moral grounds, since imposing such a moral judgment on women faced with an unwanted pregnancy cedes the entire issue to those who would shame, intimidate, or officially coerce their fellow citizens...

...Anyone, married or single, who is willing to work for peanuts is welcome to apply...

...Could that energy be more happily and productively employed in reducing the number of .unintended pregnanciesand consequent abortions...

...No, the real story is how the Reagan and Bush administrations awarded prohibitionists the title to US...

...Kosters also told me that he hadn’t even read the Armey report that he had supposedly assured DeParle wasn’t gaining popularity...

...I don’t understand Graham’s other complaint...

...In fact, Kosters told me that he agrees with Armey’s arguments-that the Congressional Budget Office routinely overcounts capital gains and undercounts capital losses-and that he had told DeParle the same thing...

...It is an old and dishonorable practice of governments to mulct the unwary by asking for more money than is properly due...

...I’ve written advocacy advertising for pro-choice groups...

...And while we’re at it, can’t we call these people prohibitionists...

...Conservatives should answer DeParle with a less cheeky question: Does he really think that we can arrive at an honest definition of poverty when the sneaky liberal reporters writing the stories on it can’t be honest in how they report it...

...Peters has nothing to apologize for, which is just as well...

...DeParle cheekily asks: “Do they really think that poverty in America is the creation of some sneaky liberal statistician?’ Of course not, but conservatives do lament that the political debate over wealth and poverty begins with overstated estimates of both...

...Depending on the year chosen, the growth in inequality can look smaller or larger...

...HANK COX Takoma Park, Maryland Turning the screw While it may well be true that only the rich have the money to bribe governments, authors Betsy Dance and Claudia Kolker [“SO Rms, Grt Vu, No Tx,” July/August] seem to have overlooked the fact that what makes it all possible is a corrupt government in the first place...

...I know what these campaigns cost...

...But the church is aware that not all citizens possess such an understanding or commitment...

...LETTERS Brothers in arms Well, will you look at that-two of my very favorite people in the world, Tom Clancy and Charles Peters, having a go at each other in The Washington Monthly [“Letters,” July/August...

...The authors assume the assessments to be correct, but this is not necessarily true...

...I neither said nor implied that Kosters endorsed the way the CBO calculates capital gains...

...Sexless ed Your comments on staffing parochial schools in the July/August “Tilting at Windmills” were so superficial as to be silly...

...Celibacy is not a requirement for teaching in parochial schools...

...Peters raised thoughtful questions about our military’s reliance upon fancy technology...

...Of course it could...

...Pro-choice groups have always supported a woman’s right to use contraception, in very concrete ways...

...A bit of humility enables us to accommodate them...

...And I know how very much Planned Parenthood-to cite just one example-wishes it could devote more time than it already does to enhancing women’s choices and less to preserving the choices they already have...

...I looked for some indication that you were talking with tongue in cheek but didn’t see any...

...Women who choose to do so are either incredibly brave or incredibly irresponsible...

...There are many more married people teaching in our schools now than Sisters or Brothers...

...Regarding contraception, the church encourages responsible parenthood and teaches Catholic couples to fulfill this responsibility by practicing methods that are in accord with moral law...

...As he did in the Times, DeParle presents economist Marvin Kosters as disagreeing with Congressman Dick Armey’s contentions about the Green Book’s estimates of income inequality...

...I suppose such a spat was inevitable, given the way Clancy has glamorized high-tech weaponry in his novels and Peters has published articles (like the one by Scott Shuger attacking Clancy) questioning our reliance upon such weapons...

...The question isn’t why pro-choicers aren’t procontraception...

...That’s the whole, sad point...

...JONATHAN POLANSKY Fairfax, California The data game I’m surprised that Jason DeParle’s standing as a Washington Monthly alum gives him the privilege of rewriting his New York Times articles for your publication...

...The problem is finding the money to offer these teachers acceptable salaries...

...In short, it is not the rich who are screwing the rest of us, but a corrupt government that is trying to screw all of us...

...Had McWilliams bothered to question me on the subject matter of her article, I would have responded in the following way: Because every abortion is the destruction of a human life-and thus a gross violation of that human being’s fundamental right to life-the Catholic Church has been in the vanguard of those who urge the government to protect unborn lives...

...Most people pay without protesting, but some do object...

...His July/August article [“Homeless in Hot Tubs”] is a sloppy rewrite of an even sloppier May 26 “Week in Review” article in The New York Ernes...

...Contrary to your facetious analysis, we could use more people willing to live single and poor...

...One could spend a long time waiting for a magazine editor to admit error, and even longer for a West Virginian to back down in an argument...

...After interviewing me solely concerning the theological background of the church’s teaching on contraception, McWilliams used my words to prove that the church’s public defense of unborn human life is really an extremist campaign against contraception...

...I quoted Kosters on only one point, and it’s one that Graham apparently agrees with: “Most analysts would agree that there’s been a growth in inequality...

...TIM GRAHAM Alexandria, Virginia M,: Graham is associate editor at Mediawatch...

...Therefore, when it comes to public policy on contraception, the church merely asks the government to assume a position of neutrality-neither punishing nor promoting contraception...

...But as anyone who read both pieces can attest, they were very different...

...MICHAEL SULLIVAN Kinshasa...

...Zaire...

...As for McWilliams’s implication that most women choose abortion for reasons of “convenience,” I can only assume that she has never even contemplated raising a child with little or no social support...

...July/August...

...Both performed honest, useful work...

...JOHN R. CARTER Earlysville, Virginia Immaculate contraception I was dismayed to read Rita McWilliams’s use of my comments in her article, “Why Aren’t Pro-lifers and Prochoicers Pro-contraception...

...And those who object are those with the most to lose-namely the rich...

...Clancy conferred an aura of efficiency on our militq at a time when it was sorely needed...

...HELEN M. ALVARE Washington, D.C...

...birth control policy here and abroad...

...It is entirely possible to agree that there’s been an increase in inequality and feel that this inequality has been overstated by CBO accounting tricks...

...It’s far more more accurate than “pro-life...

...The key question that the article fails to ask is why some assessments are as high as they are in the first place...

...As for Clancy, he was right about the effectiveness of high-tech weapons, but his military vision is not always clear...

...The moral of the story is that all God’s children make mistakes, even public-spirited editors and filthy rich novelists...

...In fact, I explicitly stated that “Armey has a point when he argues that the data on inequality can easily be jiggered for partisan reasons...

...Get real...

...Unfortunately, so long as cynical Republican electioneers continue to reckon that indulging the prohibitionists will keep their envelopes licked and their phone banks staffed, pro-choice groups will be obligated to protest the viciousness, fraudulence, and ultimate futility of compulsory pregnancy laws...

...Do we really want state legislators to make the call on that one...

...Alvare‘ is director of planning and inforrnationjor the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops...