Procreate or perish
I believe the collapse in college attendance is not a function of the Great Recession (so-called) as suggested by the president of Lyon College in a recent guest column. Instead, it is of more systemic proportions. The iron law of demography is brutally simple: Procreate or perish. A society--any society--must produce, on average, 2.1 live births for every woman of childbearing age. Those which do will survive. Those which do not will slowly disappear. This is not a function of religious doctrine or political persuasion; like entropy (which in a sense it resembles), it is an inexorable law of nature.
The fact is that the decadent West for some time has been below replacement level and there seems to be no reason to expect a reversal. Not only is this true in the United States, the situation is even worse in Europe. Counterintuitively, the worst-case scenario is Italy. The "Catholics" therein are no more attentive to Paul VI's condemnation of contraception in Humanae Vitae than are the protestants in Northern Europe. Barring a reversal (and, again, there seems to be little basis for such an expectation), it appears Islam in the 22nd century will realize its 1,500-year-old dream of conquering Europe; not by military invasion, but rather by natural reproduction.
J. FRED HART JR.
Little Rock
The right to choose
So the religious right is passing laws state by state in its attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. Who do they think they are, this influential minority? All surveys show that the vast majority of Americans favor a woman's right to choose. Here's an idea ... why not take a good look at Prohibition and how that worked out? Prohibition was brought about by an influential religious minority imposing its will on everyone else. What did it lead to? It led to illegal booze, speakeasies and a ton of money for criminals.
So I say if you don't like abortion, then don't have one, but stop trying to impose your set of values on everyone else. You are, after all, in the minority, and this is supposed to be a democracy, isn't it ?
REGINALD EDWARDS
Compton
Editorial on 05/18/2019