<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Courtesy of today’s Lewiston Tribune with special thanks to Moscow’s Nick Gier . . .</span></div><div><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></strong></div><div><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleTallBody; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 400; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;">————————————————-</span></strong></div><div><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></strong></div><div><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Response to Prager</strong></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">I must respond to Dennis Prager’s Nov. 27 column, “Young Americans voted to ruin their lives.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">He blames Harvard University and all “leftists” for the fact that 59% of young people believe that “their rights are under attack” and “73% are troubled that the rights of others are threatened.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">This is an insult to young women in most red states whose reproductive rights have been curtailed. Most of our youth reject Prager’s absurd claim that climate scientists are “hysterical.” They rightly fear for their future and the lives of their children.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Most believe that teen mothers, without pre- and post-natal care and without access to abortion, will most likely ruin their lives — or die because of our record maternal death rates.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: white;">Our teen pregnancy rate is 35 per 100,000 while nine “leftist” European nations have 22 per 100,000. Red states, except for six blues in the top 20, have the highest teen pregnancy rates.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Conservative parents frown on adolescent sexuality, but the U.S. has some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections in the developed world. Half the cases are found among youth ages 15-to-24, and most of these occur, overwhelmingly, in red states.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Since 2013, according to NBC News, “100 students have been killed and 155 injured by gunfire in 54 school shootings.” Death obviously brings the most ruin to one’s life, but the trauma that the injured and their classmates have experienced will be lifelong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">I believe that most students would blame conservatives, not leftists, for the lack of common-sense gun control.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 12pt 0in 0.25in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Nick Gier, Moscow</span></p></div>————————————————-<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></body></html>