NAVY YARD TRAGEDY
Treat threats, support
mental health funding
Regarding “How lack of compassion failed Navy Yard shooter” (Opinion, Sept. 20), I seldom agree with Charles Krauthammer, and don’t agree with his stance on gun control in this op-ed — but he is totally right about his take on the poor shooter in the Washington Navy Yard. That man was suffering.
The plight of the mentally ill in this country is pitiful, and these horrific situations will continue until we get our heads out of the sand and offer the mentally ill treatment. Right now, we cannot compel them to accept treatment. This man’s situation was somewhat better in that he did ask for help, but since our “system” is so lax, he fell through the cracks.
Attentive care costs money, so until mental illness treatment is appropriately funded, and until our laws are amended to allow treatment of threatening persons, these kinds of horrors will continue.
BONNIE A. PARKER, DULUTH
Don’t let hysteria sway
response to shootings
Thank you, AJC, for publishing the opinions of Charles Krauthammer. For those seeking a sane (no pun intended) explanation for why the Washington Navy Yard shootings occurred, please read his Sept. 20 opinion (“How lack of compassion failed Navy Yard shooter”). It is an excellent column on the harmful effects of the government’s work with community mental health centers.
Much work is needed in dealing with mental health issues, but government knee-jerk reactions to those needs, coupled with hysteria over the Second Amendment, ultimately lead to the type of event that unfolded at the Washington Navy Yard.
WALT FARMER, MCDONOUGH
INTERNAL DISCORD
We’ve declared war
on our own citizens
As citizens and residents, we’ve mostly ignored the real wars being waged right here in our country: the war against children by cutting school budgets; the war against the poor by criminalizing them and misplacing blame for budget woes; the war against the sick by demonizing the Affordable Care Act, and the war being waged in our streets by police killings of unarmed citizens.
All wars have casualties and some things in common — the first being the truth. All wars are dirty. All wars disproportionately affect the stakeholders. Ask the soldier, the child, the poor person, the sick person, and those being profiled and violated by police.
RONALD D. JOHNSON, AUSTELL
ETHICS
State panel’s actions
have unpleasant odor
Luckily, we don’t need newspaper to wrap our fish in anymore (“Your daily jolt: Governor slams newspaper for reviving ethics case,” ajc.com, Sept. 19) — but we do need reporting on the handling of ethics violations by Gov. Nathan Deal. The whole issue has an unpleasant odor, and I look forward to getting the “reel” story.
TRISH SILVERIA, BROOKHAVEN
