UP TO MOTHERS

Nowhere in Steve Chapman's column blasting the government for not providing
clean needles to pregnant drug addicts did he mention the ones who have the
responsibility and power to really do something to solve the problem -- the
mothers themselves.

Why should money be spent on people who have such low regard for their own
lives and the lives of the little ones they carry that they continue to
take drugs or have sex with infected drug users?

It is the individual's responsibility to keep herself clean and healthy,
not the government's, especially when it involves a problem that can so
easily be avoided by altering her behavior.

The government does provide money for programs that will help these moms
change their addictive habits. Many private organizations provide free
counseling and other kinds of help to mothers who find themselves in a
crisis pregnancy.

If these women choose to ruin their lives and the lives of their unborn
children by engaging in highly risky behavior, I don't see how any
government program involving clean needles is going to help.

Let's quit blaming the government for all our problems and expecting it to
do for us what we should do for ourselves: accept responsibility for our
actions.

Ceil Humphreys
ORLANDO