Children are Victims of Prostitution, Not Criminals

No Turkey and Gravy for All
GEORGIA FORUMBy Sarah Beth GehlAs families gather for Thanksgiving this week, we should consider that in just a decade Georgia has deteriorated from average (ranking 22nd) to 4th highest for food insecurity in the nation.One in seven Georgia households exper

Taxes are an Investment in Our Future Prosperity
MASSACHUSETTS FORUMBy Peter EnrichOur local and state governments provide many of the vital public structures that build strong communities and ensure opportunity for us and our children such as schools, transportation, public safety, parks, and health and social services.Yet, the tax structures that enable us to pay the price for a civilized society suffer from two severe flaws. First, state and local taxes are exceedingly volatile, dropping calamitously during economic downturns, when the revenues are most badly needed. State and local governments, unlike the federal government, can only spend what they take in.Second, unlike the federal inc

Keep Religion Out of Health Care Reform
By M. Patricia West, MSSWElected officials' religious views should be their own private affair, neither imposed by them upon the nation, nor imposed by the nation as condition to holding public office. This means their private religious views should not be imposed via the current debate over health care reform.Important life decisions are responsibilities of individuals and families, not of government or religious groups. On that, most of us can agree. There is also a strong history of separation of church and state in America, and one of our founding principles is of freedom from religious intolerance. That's why I was deeply offended when Roman Catholic Church bish

"Cadillac" Health Plans: A Smooth Ride or Bumpy Road?
COLORADO EDITORIAL FORUMBy Robin BakerThe excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” plans is a central feature of the Senate Finance Committee's health proposal. Most often, Cadillac plans are described as the "overly generous" or "gold-plated" plans offered to Wall Street typ

Cause for Concern: An Assessment of the Military Mental Health System
ALABAMA FORUMBy Amy Hinton and Lamar DavisOn November 5 a shooting spree at the Fort Hood Soldier Processing Center in Killeen, Texas left 13 soldiers dead and another 29 wounded. Subsequently, the shocking revelation that the alleged perpetrator was an active duty Army psychiatrist seemed to defy belief.The recent actions attributed to Major Nidal Hasan have been subject to intense media coverage. Few, however, have questioned how such a deeply troubled individual could avoid detection while working in the very mental health system that was intended to be the safety net for our returning troops.A 2008 RAND Center for Military Health Po