Caring for women

Local health centers are where many people turn for trusted healthcare. Community health centers, like Planned Parenthood, often serve as an entry point for essential healthcare needs. Locally, Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast provide for women's health and medical needs through their various health centers.

Today, one in four women who receives contraceptive care does so at a women's health center. One in six who obtains a Pap test or a pelvic exam does so at a women's health center. One-third of all women who receive counseling, testing or treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, do so at a women's health center. Such basic healthcare is essential, particularly during difficult economic times, to give women the tools they need to protect and support their families.

This is particularly true when you consider that women of childbearing age spend a remarkable 68 percent more in out-of-pocket healthcare costs than men, in part because of reproductive-health needs.

Protecting community healthcare providers in national reform is fundamental to a just and equitable healthcare system. We need to ensure that women have access to reproductive healthcare and to trusted healthcare providers wherever they live. Women must not be worse off after healthcare reform than they are today.

REV. DR. LAURINDA HAFNER, senior pastor, Coral Gables Congregational Church, Coral Gables

A musical delight

The University of Miami's Frost School of Music's Six Operas in Sixty Minutes delighted the senses with innovative music and librettos originated by professors and performed by students to the delight of the audience.

Some had plot, one did not. There was intrigue, conflict, romance and tragedy. Over too soon, we wanted more. I'm pleading, encore!

SUSAN ACKLEY, Miami Shores

Not the same

The greatest statesman of the 20th century, Winston Churchill, was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Ronald Reagan who negotiated treaties, substantially reduced nuclear arsenals, and defeated the Soviet Union without firing a shot was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Other notable omissions include: Poland's Irena Sendler and Pope John Paul II, India's liberator Mahatma Gandhi, Czech Vaclav Havel, and Corazon Aquino of the Philippines.

With its unanimous 2009 award to an inexperienced, untested, newly elected American president, the committee has sadly established this world-renowned prize as erroneous, insignificant and irrelevant.

CARLOS LUMPUY, Miami

No easy answer

If President Obama does not send troops to Afghanistan, as requested by the commander in the field, he will be condemned by the right for failing to do what is necessary to win. If he sends the requested 40,000 troops, he will be condemned by the left for escalating the war, and we may see antiwar marches and riots in the streets.

If he decides to send a lesser number of troops than requested, he will be condemned by the right for being timid and ineffectual, and by the left for continued support of a lost cause and ``mission creep.''

It's a no-win situation.

ANTHONY LIOTTI, Sunny Isles Beach

Unfair power law

The Oct. 9 article FPL to pay $25M for blackout blunder says that under state law utility customers cannot be compensated for outage losses. If residents pay for electricity every month, why is the government receiving most of the money?

KERBY SICAR, Dania Beach

Martí's lesson

Love, forgiveness, reconciliation, unity are lofty words used today in the Cuban-exile community. However, they need to be seen in context if they ever are going to have a chance to materialize in Cuba.

This is the right time to reject that fluffy type of love that some columnists and exile leaders advocate. José Marti's love was sacrificial love. He preached the brotherhood of man but organized the war against Spain.

What would have happened if Washington, Franklin and Jefferson had decided that being nice to the king was the right strategy to obtain freedom? The Cuban regime is composed of depraved men unable to see or admit the horrific dimension of their crimes. They only understand two languages: military confrontation and political pressure.

This is not to conclude that President Obama's policy on the island is totally wrong but to warn that providing cash and resources would only solidify the regime, putting permanent chains for the Cuban people.

FELIPE FERNANDEZ, Miami

Timing was wrong

Misquoting from an Oct. 11 article, an Oct. 15 letter mentioned Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez having handed President Obama a Noam Chomsky tome. The book that Chávez handed to President Obama during the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad was Open Veins of Latin America; Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, a 1973 work by Eduardo Galeano.

ANDRE J KERVRAN, Deerfield Beach

Editor's note: Mr. Kervran is correct. Mr. Chávez displayed the Chomsky book, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance during a 2006 speech at the United Nations.

Many heritages

The Oct. 15 letter giving credit for the Hispanics' success in the United States to our heritage alone is missing the one factor that most Cuban-born Americans are known for: our heartfelt gratitude to this country allowing us the same opportunities available to native-born Americans, whose ancestors -- from many different heritages -- fought our wars, shared their values and paid the price to be able to offer us the sanctuary in which we have succeeded.

The phrase ``only in America'' says it all.

ROSA DEL CASTILLO NORIEGA, Davie

Pricey minutes

I went out of town for a few days. Upon my return, I visited the post office in the City Beautiful and noticed that the parking meter only gave me 12 minutes for a quarter.

I thought it was a malfunction. Then I went to another place and when I deposited four quarters the meter only gave me 48 minutes. This is another example of our public servants at work: Let's squeeze the public a little bit more, maybe they will not notice it right away.

And then it is only a 25 percent increase. Inflation? What inflation?

ALFREDO OLIVA, Coral Gables