Wednesday Feb. 6, 2002

By Staff
Save Once and Again'
To the editor:
Are you all trying to support Sela Ward's show "Once and Again"? It is in danger of cancellation due to some bad promotion by ABC-TV. Please go to abc.com under the show's "speak out" and do all you can to save this show
April Holt
Hampton, Va.
via e-mail
Where's bonus check' for food stamp workers?
To the editor:
On Jan. 19, The Times Picayune ran an article concerning the one-time bonus check all Louisiana food stamp workers received due to the receipt of $2 million in "Enhanced Funding" from Uncle Sam because those workers helped lower their state's food stamp error rate to 5.7 percent compared to the national average of about 9 percent. As known by all, Mississippi is always at the bottom of the heap in just about everything. But in one area, some of its state employees have excelled and received federal recognition and rewards for their outstanding performance: lowering the state's food stamp error rate.
Come the end of the fiscal year, someone in the Legislature or the Governor's office will have received close to $15 million in "Enhanced Funding" because, over the past three years, we have helped to lower to state's error rate to about 4.59 percent.
To our esteemed elected officials in the faux-marble halls of the Capitol, "Where's our one-time bonus check? Where's our money?"
Eligibility Workers were told that "some law" prevented up from receiving bonus checks. What law? Can't you legislative boys and girls, along with the Governor, get together and change that law? Eligibility Workers were also told, since bonus checks were not an option, that their "Enhanced Funding" would be used to upgrade our computer system. As far as I can tell, it's still the same old Edsel model with which we've always been saddled. Eligibility Workers were then told that come "hard times," our "Enhanced Funding" would be used to help save jobs in the event of budget cuts. With an eligibility worker's average yearly salary being about $22,000, $15 million would surely insure their positions, along with many more at that price. But that promise really doesn't hold water either, because the Department of Human Services in the only state office which is NOT being allowed to fill its vacancies, so I hear tell.
Why should the "blood, toil, tears and sweat" so to speak, of the state's eligibility workers be the sole salvation of the entire Department of Human Services? My sweet Granny from D'Lo would call that "robbing' Peter to pay Paul." She would also call it WRONG.
Anthony Wayne Kalberg
Eligibility Worker
Gulfport
via e-mail
Planned Parenthood shouldn't get federal funding
To the editor:
I would like the government to stop funding Planned Parenthood. They receive $363 million a year from the federal government alone. This does not include state and local money. I believe they promote teen sexual activity by aggressively handing out contraception and failing to promote abstinence.
As a family physician, I can assure you that their medical practices are shabby. They consistently fail to properly inform women regarding the harms of contraceptive pills and injections. Planned Parenthood has a terrible track record of coercing women into having abortions, which has put many of these women at risk of health problems later in life including breast cancer. Women are rarely told about this link.
Planned Parenthood doesn't need any taxpayer money. This organization has shown itself to be an aggressive and effective marketing company, continually finding new ways to generate funds.
I am concerned that Planned Parenthood's advertising campaigns promote sexual activity and leave more of the nation's youth vulnerable to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Planned Parenthood has failed. Our teen pregnancy rate and STD rate are higher than ever. There are still 1.5 million abortions a year in this country. Can't we do better than this?
Thomas Messe, M.D.
Groton, Conn.