Society needs more tolerance, consideration for others
I read your newspaper’s story about the shootings in Alabama. It is awful, but the gun is the instrument, not the cause, as the article seems to imply. Someone had to pull the trigger.
Our failure as a society is not significant gun control but significant consideration for others and a sense of propriety within and among the citizenry. Too many people feel entitled to have their way, regardless of the needs or feelings of others.
My sister witnessed an assault in a checkout line at a grocery store. An apparently very unhappy and obviously unstable customer berated the cashier because of a misunderstood request. The customer used violently obscene language and stopped just short of physical abuse because another customer intervened.
For too many people, violence is the answer. If you want a scapegoat, look at video games. Most video games involve destroying something or killing something. Too many people have become immune to violence.
Society needs to learn tolerance, patience, consideration and how to behave.
RICHARD B. BACKUS, ED.D., PEACHTREE CITY
Earth Day calls us to honor God’s gifts, engage in prevention
Who among us does not savor a blue sky framed by spring’s fresh green, the birds’ morning mating songs filtering through the fresh cool breeze of an opened window? Who? Those where bombs fall or sirens warn, where the sun scorches crops or incessant rain and wind persistently destroys homes. What calling do we hear from pulpit preaching or sacred chants? “Be present, relish and respond.”
Our Earth Day mission is to honor God’s gifts and engage in prevention. To melt swords of sorrow into plows of nurture. To reconcile. To respond with love not hate. Prevent violence. Cultivate clean air. Reduce, recycle and return gratefulness where hurt festers. How? Sharing. Listening. Working, side by side. Writing together a murmuration of memory: “We must find a better way to be in our shared home - Earth.”
Let your leaders know it’s time to conserve and find renewable energy, all together, now!
BOB JAMES, ATLANTA
