Let's examine the utter folly of people voting anti-abortion. Here's the facts, Republicans have been promising to end abortion for decades now, but they haven't delivered. Not even now, with total control of all areas of government.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at what happens when Democrats are in charge. During the Clinton Administration, the number of abortions annually fell from 1.3 million to 850,000. Abortions also fell during the Obama Administration.

What happens is Republicans push misguided social policies that both increase the number of unwanted pregnancies (Abstinence-Only education, curtailing contraception) and increase the motivation for abortion by making the economic burden harder for poor women (cuts to social services).

Anti-abortion fanatics need to face reality. They are NEVER going to stop abortion. Not even if they ban it-- they'll merely push it to the back alleys. I challenge them now: If you really want to reduce abortion, rather than a fruitless ban, why not increase contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies? Why not increase social spending to make it easier for women so they'll have less incentive to terminate their pregnancies? The Clinton Administration got you 450,000 babies saved per year. Isn't that worth something? Isn't that a more sensible approach?

The problem here is that for many Catholics, it's all crocodile tears for "murdered babies". They don't really care about stopping abortion. The Church's real concern here is that we not allow any civil policy that conflicts with Church doctrine, that's all. Fetuses be damned.

The Republican Party doesn't really care, either. They want to keep the issue around as a festering sore that keeps people voting Republican, even though they'll never get their abortion ban. They'll just bet tax cuts for the rich, more deficits, and cuts in social services. And more abortion than they'd have if we followed Democratic policies.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck, Rushville, PA

In Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, the poet, Virgil, guides the author to the shadowy netherworld of condemned souls. Passing through the gate of Hell, Dante sees the inscription, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

In the journey we are about to take into the world of secular science, we will not be called upon to forsake hope, but to abandon all common sense and Christian faith.

The first step in our trek through the faithless world of science requires us to believe in nothingness. Nothingness takes some explanation. It's not the high school demonstration of a bell jar with a ringing bell inside. The teacher turns on the vacuum pump; the air is evacuated from the bell-shaped jar. Slowly the sound of the ringing subsides; no air, no sound. Nevertheless, it's not a vacuum. Fact is, vacuums are impossible.

The bell jar is crammed with photos of light, all sorts of electromagnetic waves (radio, TV, microwaves). Trillions of subatomic particles called neutrinos and muons pass through the airless bell jar every second, together with other scattered debris of atoms. And possibly, the recently discovered forces of dark energy and dark matter also inhabit this "nothingness."

A complete vacuum is impossible in the classroom and outer space. Regardless, this is what "existed"---if that word can be used---everywhere before there was matter.

Now if you believe in nothingness, you have passed the first milestone into the realm of atheistic science.

Next, you must accept that, in an instant of time all creation came into being, from nothing. The entirety of creation, all matter everywhere, began as a particle no bigger than a pinhead.

Polemicists once debated how many angels could fit on the head of a pin. Today, it's two trillion galaxies smaller than a grain of sand atop a pinhead. Buy that and you passed the second milestone.

Tenet No. 3. This mite of matter resting on a pinhead exploded: the Big Bang. But when cosmologists use the term "explode" it means the opposite of what an explosion does.

All explosions are destructive; never constructive, except for one: the Big Bang explosion.

To pass the third milestone, you must take as gospel that the Big Bang explosion was constructive, even creative. It formed the swirling galaxies, the stars with their planetary and lunar companions as well as the microscopic universe of atoms together with all the laws of physics that govern the quantum and macro behavior of matter.

How are you doing? Did you pass the third milestone? If so, you're ready to confront the next impossibility.

The planetary dust-bunny theory is the fourth doctrine in the canon of common-sense defining science.

Ever pack a snowball? You know that the harder you squeeze the snow, the denser it becomes. It's the same with cosmic dust, so they say. Imagine a planet-sized mound of rocks squeezed into a molten-hot planet, and this without any known force strong enough to possess this compacting power.

Moreover, in a vacuum matter tends to disperse, not condense. Yet, inexplicably, this is how the trillions of planets throughout the universe were formed, and we'll leave it at that. You're on your way to believe No. 5.

This leap of faith demands that a cloud of hydrogen and helium gas is compacted under such gargantuan force that its interior reaches a temperature of 30 million degrees. At this point, it detonates like a hydrogen bomb.

But remarkably, this nuclear explosive is controlled and continues for billions of years. A star, like our sun, is born---with an internal structure as complicated as Earth's---just as they are birthed in their countless heavenly number. Believe it.

Last, No 6. The jewel in the Crown of the Impossibilities is that life arose from nonliving matter. Perhaps it first appeared in a murky puddle, maybe in a tidal pool, or in the ocean depth near a volcanic vent, no one knows.

However, agnostics---a person who believes that nothing can be known beyond the material---do know that it was a chemical reaction, not a divine act, that created life: of that they are sure. An out-and-out absurdity.

"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'"

What! You failed the quiz. Buck up. If the White Queen could do it, so can you. Like Alice, you just "haven't had much practice."

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins, New Milford, PA

With prices being paid to dairy farmers still lingering far behind the national average cost of producing milk, and where it appears there is no real effort being made to give dairy farmers a fair price for their milk, Pro-Ag is urging the Senate Agriculture Committee to immediately take appropriate action to place a floor price under milk that is used to manufacture dairy products.

The proposal would establish a $20 per cwt. floor price under the above milk in three increments. The proposal would establish a floor price at $16 per cwt. (hundredweight) on July 1, 2018, followed by the price being set at $18 per cwt. on September 1, 2018, and on November 1, 2018, the price would be established at $20 per cwt.

As manager of Pro-Ag, I said, "I believe with school soon to be dismissed for the summer, additional milk would have to be marketed otherwise." He further said, "Our $20 floor price is very defensible. Anything less than this program will only continue the exiting of hundreds (if not thousands) of more dairy farmers this summer."

Pro-Ag is asking the Senate Agriculture Committee to take leadership on our proposal, and hopefully the House members will follow their proposed actions.

Along with our floor price proposal, Pro-Ag is strongly suggesting that a supply management program be implemented similar to the program contained in the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act, identified as S-1640. This program would be administered only when needed (which might be immediately).

Dairy farmers must realize that Federal Order #1 has lost 40% of their dairy farmers since the Federal Orders were consolidated in the year 2000. More important is the fact (and please listen) that approximately 673 dairy farmers are producing 55% of the milk, and approximately 10,000 dairy farms are producing 45% of the milk.

No one should linger any longer as to what must be done to enable the large majority of these 10,000 dairy farmers to be able to stay in business.

These 10,000 producers, as well as all others should immediately get behind our efforts and help us get our proposal passed.

Finally, national milk hearings must be held as soon as possible, but first, let's get the floor price established.

Who wants the blood on their hands if the majority of these 10,000 dairy farmers are gone?

What an ungodly pity this would be.

Sincerely,

Arden Tewkesbury, Meshoppen, PA

I felt the views this mother has about Donald Trump are much like many others, and worth passing on to County Transcript readers.

Her characterization of Trump as the "Salty Sailor", or as The Fireman paint an excellent picture. She has written many great books about her son and family.

Following are comments from Karen Vaughn, mother of Aaron Vaughn, Navy Seal, killed during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011 when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter in which he was riding was shot down.

"Sometimes we need the no-nonsense, salty sailor to get the job done. Appreciating what the man is doing doesn't mean we worship the salty sailor, or even desire to be like the salty sailor. It doesn't even mean we admire the salty sailor. Maybe we just know he's necessary for such a time as this.

I believe, with all my heart that we need the salty sailor in the White House and he gave this nation one more chance in November, 2016.

Donald Trump is what he is. He is still the man he was before the election. And without guilt, I very much admire what that salty sailor is accomplishing.

He's not like me. That's okay with me. I don't want to be like him. I will never behave like him. I know we've never had a man like him lead our nation. It's crazy and a little mind blowing at times. But I can't help admire the ability he has to act with his heart rather than a calculated, PC, think tank-screened, carefully edited script. I still believe that is why he became our President and why he's been able to handle a landslide of adversity and still pass unprecedented amounts of good legislation for our country and do great works for many other nations, including Israel.

I'm thrilled with what he's doing for my nation, and for the concept of rebuilding America and putting her first. I will not be ashamed of my position because others don't see him through the same lens.

Should it matter to me if a fireman drops an f-bomb while he's pulling me from a burning building? Would I really care about what came out of his mouth in those moments? Heck no! I'd care about what he was doing.

He wasn't sent there to save my soul and I'm not looking to him for spiritual guidance. All I'm thinking in those moments is, "Thanks for us having the salty sailor for a fireman."

This man is crass. Okay. He's not careful with what he says. Okay. You feel offended that he's not a typical statesman. Okay. But, he is rebuilding the nation my son died for; the nation, I feared was on a fast track to becoming a hopeless cause. Forgive me, if I'm smiling." KAREN VAUGHN

Sincerely,

John Hollenback, Greenfield Twp., PA