Pharmacists can refuse to fill morning-after pill
I am writing in response to Laura Graham's opinion column on pharmacists and the Plan B drug ("Enforcing morality over practicality," Oct 28). It is not only wrong, but also dangerous, for our government to strong-arm professionals who run private practices into practicing against what they believe. Perhaps they are religious zealots. But isn't it their right to be so?
Is there not another pharmacy down the street who would be happy to have your business? Pharmacists are not agents of the state; therefore, they should not be regulated as if they were. They are not under legal obligation to fill a prescription. They retain the right to disagree with a prescription, and for good reason. It isn't an issue of reproductive rights.
-- Carl Hippner
ASU graduate student
Calling the mandatory meal plan what it is
I consider myself a very liberal person, but regarding the meal-plan scheme, a tax is a tax. At a time when most students face rising gas prices, book price gouging and an expanding university, the least we can expect from student government is yet another tax increase. Yes, it's a tax. They are taxing the student population by forcing them to pay outrageous prices from their vendors rather than competing with the hundreds of vendors downtown and in the rest of Tempe.
You can spend $10 a meal at the overpriced Memorial Union [or buy] three days of food from Safeway. I never thought I would be arguing against a tax increase, but I am. Let the free market reign, and let Sodexho and ASU compete with Tempe. And let's stop this protectionism of bad corporations like Sodexho who already got in trouble for abusing their workforce.
-- Carlos Merchant
ASU alumni
When it comes to meal plans, students are informed
Responding to your article in Friday's issue concerning student representatives approving the meal plan ("Student reps approve meal plan," Oct. 28), all the quotes thrown out by [student representatives] so far reek to me of a high-handedness. USG and others seem to be of the opinion that anyone against mandatory plans are "not well informed."
I wish to correct that impression and assure them that a lot of us are following it with interest. As far as USG is concerned, [Yaser] Alamoodi and [Corinne] Widmer have certainly offered only a tame rollback on their poll promises. If this is the state of elected student leaders, it's no wonder our campus is so apathetic.
-- Kartik Talamadupula
ASU sophomore
If you have an opinion you'd like to make heard, e-mail a letter to the editor. Just type "Letters.Editor" in the subject line and send it to letters.editor@asu.edu.
