Letters: Support teachers, Second Amendment, women's rights, nuclear nonproliferation

Teacher's Warehouse

Anyone needing good news, here’s something our area can be proud of: Teachers Warehouse has been providing free classroom supplies to Monroe County teachers since 2004. Over the years teachers from Brown, Owen, Green, and Lawrence counties have been added. This past year over 1,300 teachers shopped and chose items to make their classrooms more interesting and their teaching more effective. Teachers Warehouse is especially helpful to new teachers who may face bare classroom walls and shelves.

Teachers Warehouse is run by volunteers with no paid staff. Many people and businesses in our community donate new and gently-used items that are sorted, packaged, and added to the shelves by volunteers. Any financial donation buys more supplies.

Volunteers will be at the doors of Kroger North, South, College Mall Dr. and at Staples and Office Depot Saturday, July 30. Drop a box of crayons, a notebook, a marker or any school supply in their baskets and take pride in this community project. Come for a visit sometime and let us give you a tour; we know you’ll be amazed.

Anne Bright, Bloomington

About the Second Amendment

The Second Amendment to the Constitution was created in 1791 at the time that muzzleloader weapons were the only type of gun. The Second Amendment has not been updated to the current weapon varieties. Thus the Second Amendment should only apply to the original muzzleloader weapons. Therefore, the Supreme Court Originalists should decide gun laws only as muzzle loader weapons, and the Second Amendment applies only to a well regulated militia.

James W. Faber, Bloomington

Compassion, intelligence, open debate needed

When I was 18, my boyfriend and I went to Planned Parenthood. They offered birth control for $15 a month. Ten years later, when I started my family, I had a college degree, good job and financial stability.

Would I have had an abortion? Probably not, but it would have been my personal decision.

I am the backbone of our Indiana economy; I paid taxes, purchased homes and stayed in the workforce during my child-bearing years because I could afford quality childcare. Women must be able to have good paying and not low-end jobs for our Indiana state economy to thrive. Family planning is critical to the equation. And personal freedom is my right as a Hoosier in making decisions on family planning.

Please consider the economics in women's rights' issues. There are many, many other critical considerations, including maternal mortality, abuse, and physical and mental health. We all make important choices about our health every day. Peggy Mayfield and Indiana lawmakers, I am asking for compassion, intelligence and open debate, as this is not a slam dunk decision.

Patricia Slabach, Bloomington

U.S. dollars should protect, not endanger

An exchange of nuclear strikes, intentional or accidental, would kill billions of people worldwide. We should limit nuclear weapons.

Twenty-five faith leaders, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant, have urged that we rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement, which worked: Iran dismantled nuclear reactors, shipped nuclear fuel out of the country, and cooperated with strict international surveillance which verified that, by 2018 when Trump pulled out of the agreement, it would have taken Iran about a year to enrich fuel for one nuclear weapon. Now it would take several weeks.

As the faith leaders write, rebuilding the agreement “could serve as a foundation for future negotiations ... [and] put Iran’s nuclear program back in the box, lift harmful economic sanctions, prevent possible military escalation, and put the Middle East and the world on a pathway to greater peace and stability.”

Congress should also reduce military spending. Pentagon officials have stated the president’s current request is sufficient to meet defense needs. Congress should eliminate funding for the Nuclear Sea Launched Cruise Missile, which would increase chances of accidental nuclear escalation, and retire the B-83 gravity bomb, which risks massive radioactive fallout spreading far beyond any target.

Our tax dollars should protect us, not endanger us.

Margaret Squires, Bloomington

Get a free tree by getting rid of pear tree

This year has been an eye-opener for the sheer number of Callery pears invading our landscape. They were especially easy to spot this spring with their prolific white blooms along roads, forests and parks. Callery pears (Bradford pears are a type of Callery pear) spread easily with birds distributing seeds everywhere. That one tree in your yard can provide multiple pears in our forests.

Callery pears outcompete our native species and do not contribute to a healthy ecosystem. Left unaddressed this problem will be far more serious in the future.

You can help reduce the spread. This year MC-IRIS has identified Callery pears as the species for the Reduce One Invasive Species Challenge. You can receive a free native tree by removing a Callery pear from your yard. There are eight native trees to choose from. For more information and to see the eight native trees, go to www.mc-iris.org.

Pam Roberts, Bloomington

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Letters on Second Amendment, women's rights, Iran nuclear deal