Raeders comment on GMOs, Planned Parenthood and football players' brushes with the law.

Kill the messenger
I have followed the articles about GMOs and Kevin Folta, most recently The Sun's editorial and Randy Lance's letter on Aug. 25. This is a clear case of, "If you cannot refute the message, then kill the messenger."
No one has ever found any of Folta's answers to questions about the science of GMOs to be false. It is easy to parade out boogey men but not easy to challenge hard science.
It is comforting that Folta has the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and scores of primary scientific papers published in the best peer-reviewed journals supporting his answers about the safety of foods from GMOs.
Folta is guilty of trying to find safe and sustainable solutions for feeding the hungry and being prepared to provide food for the prospective world population of 9 billion.
Wayne H. Smith

Rooted in racism
Why does The Sun rush to the defense of a scandal-plagued organization that's so deeply rooted in racism (editorial, Aug. 24)?
Undercover videos expose Planned Parenthood for trafficking in aborted babies' hearts, brains, etc. What's more, most of Planned Parenthood's abortion centers are located in black neighborhoods to control the black population, according to the only black presidential candidate, Dr. Ben Carson.
Dr. Carson said, “People should go back and read about Margaret Sanger,” Planned Parenthood's founder. Sanger published these slogans in her Birth Control Review magazine: “Birth control: to create a race of thoroughbreds” and “More children from the fit, less from the unfit. That is the chief issue in birth control.” In 1939 Sanger launched the “Negro Project.”
Of the more than 300,000 abortions Planned Parenthood committed in 2014, nearly a third were on black pregnant mothers, although blacks are only 13 percent of the U.S. population.
Andrew Scholberg

Flawed premise
Basic to the Planned Parenthood flap is anti-abortionists' general belief that a newly created human soul enters the body at conception. Science cannot detect or measure a soul, so science is of little help. The belief relies on personal conviction, or on accepting an authority that says so.
But what about the many embryo/fetuses that naturally abort with no human causation? Does God "kill" them? Do they “go to heaven?" Then why do the rest of us have to live in an often messed up world, with all its temptations? And, hopefully, the monstrous belief that unbaptized souls "go to hell" died with the 19th century.
When things get this involved, it usually means that the basic premise is flawed. Religious literature and, importantly, parapsychological research and literature offer many alternative belief systems. And what human enterprise is more fulfilling than a personal search for the truth?
Lance Lazonby

Above the law
Former University of Florida football player Chris Doering gets off despite an eyewitness to the accident (article, Aug. 26). A Florida State University player accused of punching a woman outside a bar gets off with no charges.
There is special treatment for football players in Florida. They don't have to obey the same laws as the rest of us.
What message does that send to the present group of Florida football players? You are above the law — that is the message!
William Smith
High Springs