Correspondence
BACA-SAAVEDRA, JOHN & SANDERS, AARON & MEDINA, BEN & SPAMPINATO, JOSEPH P. & McMAHON, MELODY LAYTON & ART & BUTLER, JUNE
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Switching parties Having been convinced by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels in her recent article ("Time to Choose," October 22), I voted for John Kerry. Nonetheless, like...
...We are not listened to or valued in any way...
...When did party loyalty trump our commitment as Christians to transform our republic...
...My colleagues and I do not mind that quite a number of articles were dropped...
...melody layton mcmahon University Heights, Ohio The writer is a librarian at John Carroll University...
...My colleagues and I stand by our claim that describing the NCEZ as an "entirely new edition," as Thomson-Gale did in its sale materials, misrepresents the work...
...The president & abortion Your November 5 editorial ("A Catholic President...
...Why not use a historical war rather than the fictitious war that ends Waugh's novel...
...I propose that the government act as a clearing house for obtaining the tissue needed for stem-cell research...
...Why shouldn't we become moderate Republicans...
...Not so new Thank you for Ernest Rubinstein's critical review of the new edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia (October 22...
...There are two interesting points about this occurrence: First, the meet-(Continued on page 4) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 2) ing was evidently orchestrated by Guy Ciarrocchi, executive director of the Pennsylvania Bush-Cheney campaign and former public affairs director for the Philadelphia archdiocese...
...I have found it incomprehensible how this great church, with its rich legacy of social-justice teachings, could unequivocally support a political ethic which champions the desires of the "haves" over the needs of the "have-nots...
...The second edition contains about 12,000 entries compared to 17,000 in the 1967 edition...
...But whatever the numbers are, simply outlawing the procedure will not end the practice...
...ART & JUNE BUTLER SEATTLE, WASH...
...JOSEPH P. SPAMPINATO Wayne, Pa...
...In fact, some projections estimate that the number of abortions performed during Bush's first four years was greater than the number performed during President Bill Clinton's last term in office...
...While this edition is expensive, I do not know any librarian who would not rather pay more to have a truly "new" edition that fully met our needs...
...One other thing: it was Lady Julia, not Diana, in Brideshead Revisited...
...Yet her proposal is no means to such an end...
...The Democrats have alienated those of us who object to abortion on demand...
...Steinfels's proposal not only fails to eliminate the scarcity which drives the profit motive, it creates an environment conducive to backroom deals, as corporations look for ways around the restrictions...
...Restrictions such as those currently in place create an artificial scarcity of stem-cell lines, which only adds to the potential market value of such material...
...Pricing is cited as a major factor for these decisions...
...Our real objection was to the "happy ending" tacked on...
...Our analysis indicates that over half of the articles did not even have updated bibliographies...
...Commonweal has long opposed Roe, and supported legal restrictions on abortion, including the partial-birth abortion ban...
...The law alone is too blunt an instrument, however, to significantly curtail the number of abortions performed in this country...
...To state that the sitting president will not have any significant effect on abortion in America fails to recognize the obvious fact that this one has made great strides in curtailing the slaughter of innocents...
...Happy endings We enjoyed Richard Alleva's review of Bright Young Things ("Not 'Vile' Enough," October 22...
...It is equally unlikely that Bush will succeed in placing justices on the Supreme Court who will reverse Roe...
...In the almost forty years I have lived in the Philadelphia area, I have seen a succession of Philadelphia prelates, starting with Cardinal John Krol, support the Republican candidate for president...
...In fact, President George W. Bush has taken many steps to limit the number of abortions in the United States...
...Neither would he have prohibited the funding of abortions overseas, another step Bush has taken to protect the unborn...
...The mechanism was a front-page article and picture of the cardinal with President George W. Bush in the Philadelphia Inquirer...
...John Kerry would never have signed those bills...
...In his response, Menchaca agreed with our estimate, but went on to cite colleagues at Catholic University who say that 1,000 articles are entirely new, and 4,400 are revised (including 500 for which revision was confined to an updating of the bibliography...
...Let the party of Kerry and Cuomo self-destruct under the weight of its antilife secular politics...
...An exodus of prolife Democrats to the GOP can only strengthen the party of Lincoln...
...In Vile Bodies, Adam never bought Nina back, as he does in the movie...
...This would relieve the economic problems caused by scarcity, and lead to a transparent process whereby corporations are held publicly accountable for their actions...
...He signed both the partial-birth abortion ban and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which protects the lives of infants accidentally born during an abortion...
...The editors reply: There is no evidence that Bush's effort to restrict access to abortion has actually "curtailed the slaughter of innocents...
...Let prolife Democrats invigorate the party that ended slavery, the party of blacks after the Civil War, the only party that will accept us both as citizens and Christians...
...Blessing Bush Regarding "Bishops for Bush" (Et Cetera, October 22): On October 21, Cardinal Justin Rigali performed what has become a quadrennial ritual: the tacit public endorsement of the Republican candidate for president by the archbishop of Philadelphia...
...Unlike Alleva, however, we found no fault with the use of World War II to end the movie...
...That is hardly a justification if there have been major advances in these areas...
...Many of those dealing with science, literature, and social sciences were appropriately deleted...
...In a recent letter to Frank Men-chaca of Thomson-Gale, the publisher of the encyclopedia, I and twenty-five other Catholic librarians complained that "over half, perhaps as much as two thirds, of the content has been taken verbatim (or practically so) from the first edition...
...Backroom deals In her article on the election ("Time to Choose"), Margaret O'Brien Steinfels argues that the government should prohibit the sale of embryonic tissue in order to remove "the profit motive implicit in the research agenda of pharmaceutical companies...
...Nonetheless, like John Garvey, I believe that the Democrats have suffered "a well-deserved loss" ("None of the Above," September 10...
...declared that "Nothing could be more reductionis-tic than the idea that the outcome of one presidential election will change abortion practice in this country...
...The whole point of the book was that Adam never found the happiness he hoped for...
...ben Medina Seattle, Wash...
...and, second, although the article said that the cardinal was willing to meet with both candidates, no comparable meeting or photo with Kerry was publicized, despite the fact that Kerry was at a rally around the corner from the Philadelphia chancery several days later...
...Even if Roe were overturned, many state legislatures would vote to keep abortion legal, and women in states where abortion was illegal would simply travel to states where the procedure was available...
...aaron Sanders Kendallville, Ind...
...Let us add our voices, so a moderate Republican no longer means someone who is prochoice, but someone who believes in unions, health insurance, and economic justice for all...
...To delete essential articles or not to provide new articles on important topics, however, is irresponsible...
...Thomson-Gale has claimed that certain articles were left unchanged because they are "classics" in the field...
...The many omissions remain troubling...
...So why should we remain committed to the Democratic Party...
...JOHN BACA-SAAVEDRA Socorro, N.Mex...
Vol. 131 • November 2004 • No. 20
