To the editor:

Doris Stine writes that Americans have the right to vote because “of the nut cases through history that have ‘stood on the corner’ and made freedom ring.” While these voices are essential to keep messages in the consciousness of the public, our rights were won by people willing to pay for them with their very lives. Protests are a political tactic, effective when the government in power respects the fundamental sanctity of human life. Dissenters against Saddam Hussein are in mass graves.

The right to life is the cornerstone of all other rights; without it, our civil rights crumble. I hope that “dedicated advocates of peace” will protest the violence of abortion. Rights are protected only to the extent that a society is willing to apply them to all humans. Pro-lifers who use the peaceful means of boycott and demonstration to interfere with the multimillion-dollar industry of abortion understand this connection. Technology shows the humanity of the unborn. Until our government protects their basic human right to life, all our other rights are precariously balanced.

Maureen Murray,

Lawrence