Glorify vandals, stimulate crime
On Sunday Sept. 20, the AJC runs an article celebrating the graffiti vandal Hense. On Monday, the new Atlanta streetcars are spray-painted with graffiti at their facility. When you you glorify the criminals, you perpetuate the crime. Perhaps the AJC and Hense could go halves on the cleanup costs.
MICHAEL FEDACK, ATLANTA
Gun control makes no sense
I have read the AJC for years and finally had to answer the Sept. 21 letter urging gun control. I have never seen a gun jump out of a drawer, or out of a safe to shoot anyone. The thought process by the gun control freaks is just plain stupid. Blacks are more than 10 times as likely to commit a violent crime than whites and Hispanics combined, yet nowhere in the letter did the writer place the blame at the feet of the perpetrators. This issue has been around now for some 40-odd years and the level of distrust has increased. Folks of this thinking never want to bring the facts to light; everything they think is slanted toward the removal of rights away from those of us who like our “guns and religion” and enjoy our freedoms. Such folks are indeed willing to fight and die for all of us — black, white, brown and yellow. God bless us all when the police are vilified like they are right now by the very people who call 911 to protect their neighborhoods. Guns don’t kill people — people kill people.
BOB BEST, POWDER SPRINGS
Ironic to scream ‘hyperbole’
It is the epitome of irony when George Will uses the term “hyperbole”— because no one does it better than the master himself. In his most recent column (“Pope’s green nonsense,” Opinion, Sept. 20), he presents us with a fact-free critique of Pope Francis’ encyclical, declaring fossil fuels to be the only means by which society can advance. This is utter nonsense at a time when today’s technology (i.e., solar) has become so competitive that more than half of the new energy generating capacity is in renewables. He ignores society’s continuous evolution to cleaner ways to produce energy. Reducing carbon emissions is no less a part of that evolution than moving from wood to coal, or whale oil to kerosene. Clinging to old-tech has never been the means by which we have achieved higher quality of life. Change is coming, whether or not it fits within Will’s political paradigm.
B. SCOTT SADLER, ATLANTA
Pending execution is a waste
What possible purpose is served by executing Kelly Gissendaner? Evidently her years in prison have changed her and she has become an influence on other prisoners. What a waste.
ANN FREEMAN, DOUGLASVILLE
Violent lawbreakers aberrant too
Andre Jackson is concerned about aberrant behavior by some police officers (“No easy way out,” Editorial, Sept.20): I too am concerned and we all should be. Also of concern is the aberrant behavior of many who employ violence to display their opposition to authority. I can’t help but believe the opposition is encouraged by acts of defiance reported daily in our newspapers and television. A rogue police officer is nothing new, but the lack of respect for authority is a growing threat that encourages prejudice where none existed before. We need proactive peacemakers on both sides of the law and that would make our way out of this quandary a lot easier for the rest of us.
JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS
