Putin is succeeding in sowing division in the U.S.
I was sad after reading Ed Kearney’s letter rationalizing why American citizens shouldn’t be upset about the Russians meddling in our election process (Feb. 14, “Isn’t Election ‘Meddling’ Simply Par for the Course?”).
In my 66 years on this planet, I have hid under my school desk during mandatory nuclear war drills as a child. I saw the terrified looks on my parents’ faces when JFK addressed the nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember Nikita Khrushchev telling Western nations: “We willbury you!” Finally, I remember Ronald Reagan standing up in Berlin and saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and within a few years, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was underway.
It is no secret that Vladimir Putin is an ex-KGB agent and has a fervor to restore the old Soviet Union to its former self, which was not an open democratic government and which menaced other nations. The one thing that stands in his way is our American democracy. Now what Mr. Putin is doing is trying to build a new wall — a wall that divides us as American citizens in this country by undermining elections with false narratives.
Unfortunately, when I see opinions like Mr. Kearney’s, I feel Mr. Putin is succeeding and I have trepidation that Nikita Khrushchev’s prophecy may come to fruition. We can only hope that better heads prevail. GERRY VESELY
Nottingham rage has abated. A bit.
Now I have some hope that our Republicans,
might fear that these angry students can keep the rage going; fear, because many of these students will be eligible to vote for president in three years — students whose talented thumbs know how to play the social media game-ofdissemination better than anyone, and who, along the way, can work in get-out-the-vote campaigns against those Republicans, who have been doused by the drenched-inblood hands of the gun lobby.
By the way: I keep rereading the Second Amendment, and nowhere — in that one sentence, four-phrase amendment about “a well regulated militia” — does it allow for the use of military-style AR-15s. That I can see. FRANK GAGLIANO
Mt. Lebanon
It is just unacceptable that the Steelers from Pittsburgh did not win more of their matches last season! While the entire squad performed poorly, the ultimate blame lies with the quarterback player. He’s the one who must marshal his crew up the court and get them close enough to the finish line for the point guard to get shots on goal. If Pittsburgh plays like this next season, the Steelers will never make it to the World Series. Something has to bedone! We need to take some basic, commonsense and reasonable measures to ensure that this terrible tragedy never happens again.Here’s what I propose ...
This nonsense is exactly what much of the anti-gun rhetoric sounds like to gun owners. We just shake our heads, roll our
We welcome your opinion
eyes and wonder how something so commonplace to us can be so widely and grossly misunderstood. Is anyone going to take seriously my proposals for the Steelers’success? Of course not.
We already know that we value experienced and informed opinions over those that are not. We already know that we don’t take our cars to a physician or our legal issues to a roofer. This understanding has become lost in the gun debate — a debate taking place in this country largely between two camps: gun owners andthe uninformed.
I get it; guns aren’t for everyone. There are plenty of things I know nothing about. I try not to hold strong opinions in these areas. I certainly wouldn’t advocate new laws and regulations based on my uneducated opinions. Much of the anti-gun crowd is doing exactly that. School shootings and street crime are very real problems. They require equally real solutions from informed and experienced voices. JIM ABRAHAM
Squirrel Hill