Letters to the editor June 13

A different era

When I grew up and attended public school in the 1950 and 1960s we started each day by saying the Pledge of Alliance, read from the Bible and prayed. We had no doors locked in school and no police presence. What changed?

— Roy Stanley, Lakeside

Common sense laws

“I learned what every dreaming child needs to know — that no horizon is so far that you cannot get above it or beyond it.” Beryl Markham

The dreams of 19 children were cut short when an 18-year-old gunman entered their school and classroom armed with an assault weapon and began firing. Two adults were also killed with other children injured. So much for their dreams! And for the dreams of their parents, loved ones and community.

Yet the following morning we learned that the stocks of gunmakers were largely unchanged. Is this how we quantify the value of innocent lives?

An atrocity, yes. Dreams for those still living replaced by fear, grief and anger. We muster counselors for support. We offer prayers. We lower flags to half mast a week before Memorial Day. We think of the first-responders, doctors and nurses called to action in gruesome circumstances. There’s no time, then, to think of dreams.

Unthinkable! Yet the unthinkable occurs again and again.

We ask parent to provide something with DNA to help identify shattered bodies. And parents wait for hours in agony for new, each minute adding exponentially to foreboding expectations.

We secure the area as a crime scene in order to dissect in minute detail what has transpired criminally. Texas senators say we need “more law enforcement” and better security. Should teacher certification now include graduation from the Brunswick, GA Federal Law Enforcement Center?

We can’t seem to adopt common sense laws at any meaningful level. It is time, now, to expect our nation’s leaders to show uncommon valor to address this epidemic. Congress — and our statehouses — must not be “the horizon that is so far we will not get above it or beyond it.” Manifestly we have to muster some uncommon sense.

— Larry D Williams, Columbia Falls

Liberal playbook

Another school shooting and liberals immediately go to the progressive playbook — ban guns.

Ignoring the huge number of shootings taking place each weekend including many children in the major cities that Democrats control, ignoring the hundreds of lives saved by armed civilians, ignoring the failure to provide real security in our schools with armed guards, trained administrators or teachers, ignoring possible technical improvements for schools, such as centralized video surveillance with one button classroom door lockdowns, liberals utter the same nonsense about how such carnage was reduced when “weapons of war” were banned in 1994 (a lie repeated by most liberals including Biden). They know their rabid progressive followers will swallow their lies.

Next, let’s get rid of “high-capacity magazines.” Even a novice takes only a few seconds to change magazines. How many lives will you save restricting magazine capacity instead of making it more difficult for the shooter to get into the school or by quickly neutralizing the threat with a trained defender once inside?

I have some advice for Republicans trying to broker a deal with their Democrat “colleagues.” Remember abortion. It started with first trimester for rape victims and mothers with health issues and morphed into ending any pregnancy up to and including during delivery of a full-term infant.

Remember gay rights. It started with partner privileges like access and decision-making in hospitals and now includes transgender access to our daughters’ bathrooms and locker rooms and participation in women’s athletics.

If you give liberals an inch they will not stop till they attain gun confiscation like Australia and soon Canada. Don’t be fooled again by liberal rhetoric. Focus instead on what will work — hardening the target and restricting access to bad guys, and enforce existing laws.

— David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls

Jan. 6 hearings worth watching

If you are one of the many locally who still supports Donald Trump, I urge you to watch or listen to the hearings from the Jan. 6 committee.

The first night gave us only broad overviews of the whole event at the Capitol, but even in those overviews, there was information about the role Trump played in the Jan. 6 insurrection and about the truth of the 2020 election.

Recordings from Bill Barr and Ivanka Trump make it clear that Trump either knows that the election was fair and continues to lie anyway or that he truly is living in his own delusions. In either case, he is wholly unfit for any elected office, especially the presidency of the United States.

If you missed the first night of the hearings, it is available in several places as either audio or video. Open your mind, open your eyes, open your heart and listen. Learn about the insurrection on Jan. 6 that nearly took away our democracy then, when you vote, hold the insurrectionists responsible for their actions.

— Amy Weeks, Columbia Falls