Effective parenting still crucial in a child’s life

It’s a modern phenomena -- child suicide. Children haven’t changed, but society’s responses to them have.

There are more pitfalls and more societal ills plaguing children in the maturation process today. A parent must be more aware and diligent and assume the role of an authority figure. No reversal of roles allowed.

Before psychiatric intervention becomes necessary, children must be guided to age-appropriate paths -- in their dress, manners and use of electronic devices and social media. Children need and want boundaries and it’s up to parents and adults to set them and keep them. There must be rules of conduct with appropriate consequences. Praise and awards should be honest -- for true achievement.

Effective parenting is a challenge, but it’s also a duty to prepare children to become well-balanced citizens, capable of coping and contributing to the world and future generations.

Some mental health proponents are of the mind that depression, feelings of inadequacy and feelings of being unloved or unappreciated can be Rx’ed away. The numbers prove otherwise.

BARBARA KRASNOFF, ROSWELL

Use of fossil fuels increases chance of intense storms

A recent letter, “Ian’s power outages show shortcomings of Green New Deal” (Readers Write, Oct. 9), argues that we must keep using gasoline-powered cars to better evacuate during hurricanes. However, this would perpetuate a vicious cycle. Using gasoline and other fossil fuels worsens climate change, leading to rising sea levels and more intense storms that increase the need for evacuations.

We can break this vicious cycle by changing from carbon-emitting fossil fuels to clean energy sources. Using electric rather than gasoline-powered cars is just one step. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act funds many other measures that will gradually and intelligently move us to a clean-energy economy. In coming years, we will have less-intense storms and less need to evacuate if we take steps now to curb fossil fuel use. Next month, let’s vote for candidates who understand the threat of climate change and will help us take effective steps to counter it.

JERRY TOKARS, ATLANTA

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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) (center left) speaks with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) as they leave a Senate Republican luncheon and the Senate holds a “vote-a-rama” to pass President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Monday, June 30, 2025.  (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (center) is flanked by GOP whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, as Thune speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate passed the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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