Letters to the editor for Thursday, Nov. 25: Immigrants and jobs, as well as rethinking sexual education

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Immigrants can and should fill job openings

It all depends on how you look at things. It appears at this time we lack a supply of workers to fill the many open jobs.

Recently, we have had a wealth of immigrants looking for the opportunity to create their future. I’m sure there’s a certain amount of folks who consider them as “freeloaders,” here to take advantage of our liberal, bleeding-heart culture.

Last week, more than 6,000 Afghan refugees were being housed at the Indiana National Guard’s Camp Atterbury preparing for permanent resettlement, two weeks after the first wave of evacuees arrived. Both adults and children take English language learning classes and soldiers teach American culture courses each week.

I know the determination of these family-oriented people is keen to find a place to make a home and a job to start their new life.

Here’s where supply meets demand. This is a small percentage of the number of current refugees who would welcome the opportunity to fill some of the jobs available and thankfully employers have been obliged to now pay a “living wage” growing our economy and good will.

Martha Snyder, Eugene

The dangers of abstinence-only education

To avoid car accidents, you shouldn’t learn to drive.

That’s the reasoning behind abstinence-only education. Around the U.S., children are getting inadequate and even harmful sex education to help them be safe in the real world.

Comprehensive sex education lets individuals learn about safe sex, relationships, consent, sexual orientation and anatomy. A prime example of the negative effects of no comprehensive sex education is shown by Alabama. There, sex education is not mandated, does not have to be medically accurate, and if taught, must stress abstinence. It is no surprise that Alabama is also leading the country in teen birth and STD rates as of 2015, this according to the nursing school of the University of Southern California.

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Though many think not teaching kids about sex will stop them from having sex, according to a study by U.S. National Library of Medicine, abstinence education has been connected to high teen pregnancy and birth rates.

We need to urge our local and federal leaders to create stricter laws mandating accurate and thorough sex education. At minimum, we need all allowance of abstinence-only education to be struck down. Our generation is depending on you to help us stay safe.

Cecilia Gonenne, Eugene

Submit a letter of 200 words or fewer to rgletters@registerguard.com. Include your full name, mailing address and phone number for purposes of verification.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Letters: Immigrants and job openings, as well as rethinking sex ed