Nobel Committee overlooked real peacemakers
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel bequeathed awards to individuals who, during the preceding year, had accomplished the best work or done the most to benefit mankind in fields worthy of merit. More than a century later, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has now fully established that, contrary to its benefactors intentions, the award is not for individual merit, but a collective vote for good intentions, hope, and wishful thinking. Winston Churchill, the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, nor was Ronald Reagan, who negotiated treaties, substantially reduced nuclear arsenals and defeated the Soviet Union without firing a single shot. Other notable omissions include: Irena Sendler of Poland, Pope John Paul II, Mahatma Gandi, Vaclav Havel, and Corazon Aquino. Instead of awarding the Peace Prize to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, the committee gave it to Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat. With its unanimous 2009 award to an inexperienced, untested, newly elected American president just nine months in office, the committee has diminished this world-renowned endowment as insignificant and irrelevant.
Carlos Lumpuy
Washington
Women’s groups should talk about cancer risks
R
e: “We want a system that will cure breast cancer,” Oct. 11 Michelle D. Bernard, president and chief executive officer of the Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Voice, made an outstanding case for opposing Obama health care. More effective and expensive treatment options for breast cancer will be eliminated and innovation in finding a cure will be stifled because of a termination of profit motives. But Ms. Bernard should also be advising women that estrogen-based birth control pills and abortion, especially before a first full-term pregnancy, both increase the risk of breast cancer. Estrogen was declared a Type 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control prematurely ended a trial on hormone (estrogen) replacement treatment (HRT) when it determined the increase in breast cancer far outweighed the benefits. It is universally agreed that a full-term pregnancy and breastfeeding early in a woman’s reproductive life protects her against breast cancer. On the other hand, pregnancy-generated estrogen from an abortion leaves her more vulnerable to cancer. It would be helpful for women if breast cancer organizations used some of the money they raise to inform women about these risks.
Carolyn Naughton
Silver Spring
MoCo should ask employees for refunds
Re: “Montgomery County sheriff clamps down on tuition applications,” Oct. 12
The Examiner’s Alan Suderman is to be commended for his excellent investigative journalism. It is outrageous, especially in these belt-tightening times, that Montgomery County’s Office of Human Resources would pay county employees to take educational courses not directly related to their duties. It’s particularly outrageous when the county pays for religion courses in clear violation of the First Amendment. The County Council and county executive should immediately put a stop to this misuse of public funds and, in the case of the religion courses, should compel the course taker and/or his boss to repay the county at once.
Edd Doerr
President
Americans for Religious Liberty
Silver Spring
