A dangerous country

In May 1970, I was a high school intern at the Smithsonian Institution. I went to the Washington, D.C., rally during my first week in town to memorialize the four slain victims at Kent State.

Last week’s Ohio atrocity cuts me like a knife: It is all too searing a reminder of our lack of progress during the past 46 years in providing a safe and sane society to live in, one in which all Americans can pursue simple daily tasks and pleasures (“Ohio State attack bears hallmark of lone wolf terrorist,” Nov. 29).

It is not only terrifying, it is increasingly an international embarrassment. I have visited 30 countries: Only we have such wanton lawlessness, day in and day out, in all venues.

As the victim of two stab wounds in broad daylight in 1974, I “get” this and its decades-long impact on my life. It is a uniquely American abomination, the permitting of handguns and the senseless loss of life or of one’s health. The wanton glorification of violence throughout the day feeds this, of course.

Please, legislators and President Barack Obama, do something now. We are a very dangerous country, every day and everywhere. It has huge economic, psychological and societal consequences that are additional to the pain and loss of life.

We have all waited and been scarred long enough.

Susie G. Stein Milwaukee