Letters to the Editor: Jan. 24, 2013

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January 24, 2013

Letters to the Editor: Jan. 24, 2013

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Thu Jan 24, 2013, 12:44 AM EST

Fed up with gun violence in America

More than 10,000 Americans are killed every year by guns, and several thousand wounded. Guns are used for thousands of felony crimes. America is the most gun-violent nation of all civilized countries on Earth.

Ask yourself: Are we all safe? Are we really civilized? Are we resolute on a solution to gun violence?

I call the military assault rifles a true weapon of mass destruction. A definition of a weapon of mass destruction: Any weapon that can kill a large mass of people in a short period of time. This qualifies the military assault rifle as a WMD.

The NRA spokesman says to solve the gun violence at schools is give all teachers guns in every school in America, and let the teachers fire back at the bad guys.

Brilliant! Then we will have the OK Corral of Tombstone all over again.

I’m against guns in the classroom. Schools are a place for education. The NRA spokesman sounds to me like an old-fashion Archie Bunker who just got back from Disney World.

Any politician who does not vote to ban the military assault rifles won’t get my vote. We must come up with common sense laws to try to solve the gun violence in America.

All mass murderers need to be labled as cowards and traitors to our country. Maybe put the label on their tombstones. This is a very fitting label for their crimes.

Another big reason for the extreme gun violence in America is the Hollywood movies. The garbage Hollywood brings to our theaters, the extreme violence, the bloody, gory horror movies — a person would have to be really sick in the mind to call this top-of-the-line entertainment.

Along with the violent video games, there’s no doubt all of this is causing mental illness in some of our young people. It’s affecting their minds to a point where some of them become extremely violent. Hollywood’s violent movies greatly affect America’s gun-violent culture and must change or the violence will get worse.

The NRA wants no rules. Hollywood wants no rules. The drug users in America want no rules. Heck, make your own long list of groups that want no rules.

In America, if we have no common sense rules, we have no law and order. If we don’t have law and order, we have anarchy. America must try to solve gun violence or have anarchy.

Dave Gee, Kokomo

Progress in civil rights never a straight line

President Obama came out strongly for gay rights and marriage equality in his second inaugural speech.

He stated: “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”

He also listed the achievements of previous movements for civil rights by other groups in American history, including African-Americans and women. After all, at one time all of these movements were ignored and then strongly opposed, but eventually embraced.

But what about nations where gays aren’t treated with any ounce of respect or dignity? In Uganda there is a bill that would impose the death penalty for gay men for consensual sex with other adults, but also impose criminal punishment for those who don’t tell the government about the sex lives of gay men. It will not only be illegal to be gay in Uganda, but illegal to know someone who is gay in Uganda.

So while gays progress in the U.S., remember, there are many nations in the grip of religious fundamentalism so bad, it would make those who protest funerals in the U.S. because our nation doesn’t persecute gays, look like Thomas Paine freethinkers in comparison.

Progress is never a straight line, but for gays in the U.S., it is coming.

Shaun Slack, Kokomo

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Opinion

Move over, Ind. drivers
Keep highway and utility workers safe; remember to pull over for utility vehicles.

May 19, 2013
May 18, 2013: Cheers & Jeers
Commissioner earns respect of inmates

Kyle Stacy sends this Cheer for Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman:

May 18, 2013
House of Burgess: The revolution will be printed
Another major milestone in the history of 3D printing was reached earlier this month when Cody Wilson, director of the nonprofit Defense Distributed, announced he had conducted the first-ever successful test firing of a completely 3D-printed gun in (where else?) Texas. Wilson then uploaded the plans online. These files were then downloaded over 100,000 times over the next 48 hours. That was, until the State Department intervened.

May 15, 2013 1 Photo
Hayden: From good to great in education
On the campaign trail last year and early into his administration, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said repeatedly that his goal as governor would be to take Indiana from “good to great.”

May 14, 2013
Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research. Instead, their words of wisdom come from a greater source — the heart, where they store and process life experiences. Unfortunately, some folks don’t receive the gift of maternal guidance, for various reasons.

May 14, 2013
Wolfsie: Making bird calls
One afternoon in 2011, my friend Eric spent a couple of hours over lunch explaining Twitter to me and I thought I understood it all, but as you’ll see from my first few tweets, I wasn’t very confident: “Is anyone getting this?”

May 13, 2013
Letter to the Editor: May 13, 2013
Good people wouldn’t do this to their neighbors. This common refrain is being heard over eastern Howard County where industrial development is planned for our farmland in the form of massive wind turbines.

May 13, 2013
Vasicek: Mother’s Day stresses
For two hours, the lady sitting next to another airplane passenger boasted about her grandchildren, producing a barrage of photographs. She finally realized that she had been talking the whole time, so she tried to make amends:
“Oh, I am sorry! I have monopolized the conversation. I will listen to you now. So please tell me: what do you think of my grandchildren?”

May 12, 2013
Letters to the Editor: May 12, 2013
How fortunate, that after years of trying to bring top-notch wind energy companies to Tipton County, this great choice is here for us — just at the right time. Tipton County badly needs the revenue from clean wind farm companies.

May 12, 2013
Cheers & Jeers: May 12, 2013
“A big cheer goes out to Kokomo for those who parked along the route to cheer on the bikes and to the riders who participated in the 11th Annual Ride For The Troops on Sunday, April 28. Despite the rain, we had a excellent turnout of 457 bikes!"

May 11, 2013
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