LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
New year … happy?
I find myself saying Happy New Year to people and feeling like a hypocrite. I want to have hope but I can’t find very much that inspires that feeling. Politicians don’t seem to reach across the aisle anymore. Their sole interest, despite the rhetoric, seems to be wanting things their own way. I remember the days when compromise, give and take and personal relationships made it possible for the Congress to make some positive progress.
Of course, the chief model for this type of behavior is our president. He acts like a petulant kindergartner, stamping his feet and crossing his arms and saying “It has to be my way.” He is willing to shut the government down to push his own agenda without regard to the government workers whose lives are being seriously impacted by his lack of moral leadership. He doesn’t have to worry about losing his home, being unable to pay his bills, going to the doctor or feeding his children. It isn’t just the workers who are affected. What about all the citizens who depend on those workers to do their jobs? Yet almost none of his supporters will call him on his contradictory comments, name-calling and fingerpointing.
So where does this leave us? Feels like a stalemate. Seems hopeless. The incivility, lack of compassion and dishonesty is the new normal. Politicians have forgotten they are supposed to be working for the people they represent and for this country.
Maggie O’Connell Orlando
Arming teachers is misguided
The solution to gun violence in schools is to add more guns to schools: That’s the dangerously misguided recommendation from the state commission investigating the Parkland school shooting. There is zero evidence that arming teachers, as the commission advises, would protect children. Instead, study after study shows that guns in schools increase the risk to students. Why? Adults don’t always lock their firearms properly. They panic. They carry biases. For all of those reasons, arming teachers is overwhelmingly opposed by educators, school safety experts and law enforcement. Meanwhile, the U.S. — with its 400 million guns in civilian hands — now leads the world in gun deaths among children. It’s well past time to treat gun violence as the public health epidemic it is, with evidence-based solutions like criminal background checks on all gun sales and expanded red flag laws. There are already far too many shattered families as a result of our nation’s unwillingness to face the simple truth that more guns equals more gun violence — and facts, common sense and experts all warn that arming teachers will lead to more tragedy. It’s enough.
Michelle Tauber Longwood