Owner who shuttered gun store should be commended
John Waldren should be commended and admired for his surprising and heartfelt decision, ”Citing national school shootings, Gwinnett man shutters gun store,” (News, June 6). Though it may be true (as noted by a gun rights advocate quoted in the article) that Waldren’s decision will not affect gun crimes, the decision nonetheless invites us to reflect on a deeper issue regarding what our lives really mean to us.
Most of us, for example, would be unwilling to accept the job of a hitman even if we fell on really hard times and the one we were approached by could easily find someone else to do the job in our place.
Waldren’s example should remind us that our lives have more significance than whatever overall net effects our individual actions may have.
SANJAY LAL, STOCKBRIDGE
Supreme Court decision threatens Georgia’s coastal wetlands
In the recent Sackett vs. EPA case, five Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the protection of the nation’s U.S. waters under the 1972 Clean Water Act.
The opinion limits Clean Water Act authority over wetlands to those that are continuously connected to water bodies by surface waters. Accordingly, there are now countless intermittent connections between wetlands and waterways no longer recognized under the Clean Water Act. Experts say this decision will eliminate protection for more than half the nation’s wetlands.
Filled wetlands can no longer shield communities from storm flooding or filter pollution from waterways. Contaminated wetlands damage water bodies, as drainage carries pollution downstream. With all of Georgia’s development, the court’s opinion will harm our natural resources and public health caused by polluted stormwater.
Environmental damage will be added as climate change increases the intensity and frequency of storms, worsening pollution carried by drainage and amplifying coastal flooding caused by weakened wetlands protection, where wetlands’ storage capacity is also compromised by rising sea levels.
DAVID KYLER, ST. SIMONS ISLAND, CENTER FOR A SUSTAINABLE COAST
