PUBLIC SAFETY
Increase in guns is not the answer we need
Steve Reba’s neighbor is another person’s neighbor, who is part of a neighborhood, which is part of a city in the nation in which I live (“We’d rather protect guns than lives of good dads,” Opinion, Oct. 14). I, too, mourn the loss of another soul to “one’s right to carry a gun anywhere, any time” in the name of self-defense. Pity the poor lawman who arrives on the scene of one bad guy and four good guys — all with guns drawn!
If there is an answer to this insanity, it can only begin when every person who cares stands up to be counted. I’m standing.
Matt Rice, Lilburn
POLITICS
Every national leader needs this skill set
A letter writer points out that charisma, intellectual brilliance and public speaking abilities have not always resulted in responsible national leadership in other nations throughout the world (“Readers write”, Oct. 14).
The problem is that the lack of those qualities in a leader always guarantees a worse situation. Just look at the last eight years here in the U.S. for proof of that.
John Aseff, Marietta
FOREIGN AID
Time to rethink how we distribute assistance
Professor Charles Raynal (“Support grows to retool foreign aid”, Opinion, Oct. 11) rightly draws attention to the benefits of smarter U.S. foreign assistance: enhanced national security, and better fiscal stewardship. This month’s observance of World Food Day, however, challenges us to rise above self-interest alone. Recent figures confirm that more than one billion people now go to bed hungry.
Strengthening the capacity of USAID to respond to this mounting hunger crisis in flexible, sustainable, and accountable ways would not only serve our own interests, but reflect our best moral impulses to help “the least of these.”
Senators Isakson and Chambliss can lead the way by co-sponsoring S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act .
Greg Sims, Decatur
POLITICS
Concept of hope is worthy of Peace Prize
Those who argue that President Obama is undeserving of the Nobel Peace Prize don’t recognize how great a commodity hope really is.
Global morale and optimism are increasing because of his leadership. As we have policies that are more inclusive, and thinking that is based on more than what’s good for the U.S., Wall Street and the rich, we will continue to see an upward trend in peace.
Hope makes you get up in the morning and plant both feet on the ground in the face of great adversity — and continue to press forward, no matter which continent you are on.
There are people who have had more of everything — money, prestige, friends in high places — who have fallen by the wayside because they lost hope.
President Obama has inspired others to take up the helm of public service, and inspired a peaceful revolution of folks who believe that we are indeed our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Inspiration yields hope.
Joy S. Jones, Atlanta