Gun violence
America
An intruder crept into the village.
Nose to the wind, it found a child.
A mother screamed, a father raged.
The elders sat, chewed the matter.
An elder said, his voice, a hideous laugh,
“To make our village safe from the hyena
we need more hyenas.”
The villagers wept.
John Irby
Southeast side
Rinse and repeat
Do something. This didn’t have to happen. Again?
People are also reading…
We hear this every time there is a school shooting, then the vitriol dies down, most of us go on with our lives…until the next time. Then it’s rinse and repeat.
We can’t do much except call our elected representatives and demand they act. And that does happen. But they don’t act, mostly because they fear losing their jobs in the next election.
But…the one, single, common factor among most school shootings is that an automatic or semi-automatic weapon was used and when it is, there are five times as many victims. There’s more! Children are more at risk of dying by gun violence than car accidents. Are you kidding me?
I am not anti-gun. I am against automatic and semi-automatic weapons. As a veteran, I know those weapons have tremendous value…IN WAR!
This is a human issue, not a political issue.
Once we know better, we must DO better.
Tina Prewitt
East side
Mass shooting again and again
The Centers for Disease Control stated that children are more likely to die from a gun-related incident than they are from a car accident. Seventeen percent of all child deaths are gun-related. The Nashville shooter legally bought “semi-automatic-like” guns. It is an all-too-familiar scenario that we as a nation seem incapable of addressing. I believe that any business that sells guns should be held accountable for thorough background checks. Our children need our protection. They need to feel safe in school. We need as a nation to take meaningful steps to ensure their safety.
Daniel McDonnell
Foothills
ID necessity
Re: the March 30 article “We should change the Second Amendment.”
I may not be a rocket scientist, but even I know that with reasonable suspicion of a crime or infraction of local laws etc., the police should have the ability to obtain identification from citizens. I am not talking about randomly demanding proof of identification. I am talking about a police officer having reasonable suspicion that something is not right and asking the possible wrongdoer for proof of I.D. That could be a driver’s license, state identification card, passport card or even a student identification. Just something that has a photo and will help prove who you are.
I used to jog around Reid Park on the paved path and it dawned on me after being accosted by a stranger that should I be hurt/killed/unconscious no one would know who I was to notify my family right away. After that I always carried I.D. attached to my shoe or around my neck on a breakaway cord.
Kathleen Czech
Midtown
Modest thoughts on Trump’s Indictment
Donald Trump has been indicted. That fact, without knowing what evidence has been presented that justified the indictment, prompted reactions from Democrats and Republicans that ignore legal reality. First, being indicted doesn’t mean that Trump is guilty. In fact, it means just the opposite. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt. Second, even if, as some Republicans claim, the prosecution is politically motivated, that does not mean the prosecution is unconstitutional. Courts have long recognized, much to defense lawyers’ dismay, that pretextual arrests, where the police have ulterior motives for arresting a person, are not unconstitutional. Indeed, in a slightly different context, Trump’s Supreme Court determined in 2018 that partisan political motives do not make gerrymandered Congressional districts unconstitutional. There is no reason to think that criminal arrests should be treated any differently than voting rights.
Donald Klein
Northwest side
TUSD’s bad idea
Re: the April 1 article “Plan paused for TUSD faith-based committee.”
I am one who believes in the separation of church and state, which means I am against any public monies going to any private schools.
For this reason, I donate money to my granddaughter’s school. To learn there was any consideration of a faith-based advisory group is disappointing, and to learn the TUSD Board was not made aware is alarming. Any advisory board should be made up of TUSD parents and professional educators.
Bruce Wysocki
Southwest side
Missing values
Re: the April 2 article “Searching for GOP’s missing budget and the values therein.”
I read Terry Bracy’s op-ed about budgets and was struck by the monolithic nature of the left. They all speak from the same script. They must supply their talking points with the media, too. The words and the phrases are identical. Why is that? The Democrats have their share of “whack-a-dos” (his word not mine) but they fall in line. Is that because they fear repercussions or because they lust for power?
I much prefer to be represented by people who think for themselves, people with differing views and opinions (diversity of thought!). There was a time when Republicans, Democrats, and independents could come together and negotiate their differences. But, any departure from the orthodoxy of the left isn’t permitted. I’ll take the messy side of politics over the strict obedience to the party every time.
Bill Blaine
Marana
Be a little classy
South Carolina women’s team lost to Iowa after a remarkable 36 game unbeaten streak. The coach undoubtedly deserves platitudes for the many ways she worked to cause this record.
After the game Coach Dawn Staley fired shots at the Iowa coach for suggesting that playing South Carolina was like a bar fight. She later suggested that they shouldn’t judge us by the color of our skin. For an opposing coach to suggest that we are “going to have a bar fight” or “we are going to war” is typical hyperbole to inspire her own team and shouldn’t be taken literally. I never saw or heard anywhere that the Iowa coach suggested that they were “monkeys” or demeaned the South Carolina players for the color of their skin. Coach Staley was the picture of graciousness when they were winning, but one loss and she displayed a real lack of class.
Phil Reinecker
East side
Opposite of ‘woke’
Re: the April 3 letter “Woke people want to be fair.”
I want to thank the letter writer for his opinion on the inappropriate (I think) use of the word “woke.” I cringe every time I hear or read it misused. And why hasn’t anyone else called out the abuse of the English language? I don’t think I’m being a snob about it: I can write a proper sentence (mostly), but I couldn’t tell you what part is noun, verb, pronoun, etc., to my English teacher’s frustration. But I’m pretty sure people are using woke wrong.
So, I looked up synonyms for woke that I too could abuse.
My favorites are doze and languish. Doze, because it looks like the opposite of woke, same letter count and it could be used as incorrectly as woke.
Languish, because it is close to how I see people who misuse woke and when I say “You are languish,” they will think I said language and pat themselves on the back for their command of it.
Robert Brabham
West side
