School safety plans must deal with guns
When I went to school in the 1950s and `60s, there was never any concern about some kid coming into school and blasting away with a gun.
One difference between then and now is that maladjusted kids weren’t sitting on mountains of guns then. Another is that we didn’t have a culture of aggrievement in which people stewed about injustices done to them, and we weren’t connected via social media with others who felt the same way.
Anger and self-pity have always existed, but now they are amplified. Holding a gun empowers some aggrieved young people to even the score once and for all.
There were solid ideas about threat evaluation and intervention in the article “Georgia Tech has a plan for school safety” (AJC, May 20). However, the word “gun” did not appear even once. This illustrates our enormous cultural blind spot concerning one basic cause of school shootings: a landscape littered with guns.
DEAN POIRIER, LILBURN
Air quality not good for Peachtree runners
One of the crown jewels of Atlanta is the AJC Peachtree Road Race.
I believe my first Peachtree was about 1975. Originally, it started at Sears (near West Paces Ferry) on Peachtree and ran to “Five Points” in the heart of downtown.
I believe I did about 25 of them and broke 40 minutes three times. At first, you could put your foot on the starting line, but as it grew, they arranged starting times by expected finished times.
It concerns me that Atlanta’s air quality has been ranked 48th worst out of 228 major cities in ground-level ozone. That’s what people breathe during the Peachtree. Having seen the air in Delhi, India, Seoul, South Korea, and Beijing — where people wear masks just walking around — I hope that doesn’t happen here.
Atlantans should consider reducing their air pollution footprint so we can all breathe easier, live longer and enjoy running in Atlanta.
DANIEL F. KIRK, KENNESAW
GOP party switchers could save our democracy
I agree with a recent letter writer that President Donald Trump should be impeached, but it won’t happen as long as Republicans control the House of Representatives. That’s why I’ve contacted House members in swing districts across the country, pleading with them to switch parties.
I asked them to put aside fears of being “primaried” in 2026 because Democratic voters would likely reward them for saving our democracy. I also wrote letters to newspapers in their districts and the Democratic parties in their states.
I urge readers to follow my lead. It would take just a few GOP switchers to flip the House, and Trump and Vice President JD Vance could be impeached. With Trump’s popularity tanking, we could hope enough GOP senators would find it politically expedient to show some patriotism and vote with Democrats to convict.
Trump’s dismantling of government agencies created by Congress, illegal deportations of migrants, assaults on constitutional rights, threats of imperial conquest and all the other MAGA madness would be over.
CHRIS MOSER, STONECREST
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