Road rage incidents should frighten us all
The list of shootings in this Thursday’s AJC (”Shootings a deadly driving trend”) ought to frighten everyone.
These were mostly road rage events; they don’t include all the other shootings and acts of violence both local and national, whether individual or mass. Rage involves violent and uncontrolled anger, a fit of violent wrath. In archaic usage, the word meant insanity.
We are indeed in perpetual jeopardy, in public or in our dwellings. Of all the deep terrors facing us, rage seems the most random. Some believe prayer will resolve it. Some think gun control is the answer. Some think solving racial, ethnic, and gender inequities will quell it. Some urge greater punishments. We’ve been there and done that, but none really touch the heart of rage: individuals’ feelings that only by exploding can they be satisfied. What are we to do?
I think it’s time for the president to convene Congress in a special session to seek new, less clichéd, nonpartisan ideas about the problem of rage. How can people be persuaded to move away from rage toward reconciliation? Or is the social contract so broken that it cannot be mended? I don’t know, but I do feel I have no safety any more anywhere.
RICKS CARSON, ATLANTA
Student loan forgiveness a matter of accountability
Sen. Warnock has joined others in urging President Biden to cancel out up to $50K of student loan debt. I oppose this. Students knew what they were getting into when they took on the debt. It is a matter of personal accountability.
That said, I would support student loan debt forgiveness if the students, upon graduation, would commit to three years of public service either in the U.S. military or some other U.S. government service program. Sort of like the old G.I. bill in reverse.
DAVID PORTER, DORAVILLE
Let’s address issues rather than canceling people
The insights column by Christopher Schelin (”Cancel culture sentiment isn’t new,” Opinion, April 30) is important to remind us about who we cancel. Another question to ask, what will be the consequences of canceling people? What if Great Britain canceled Winston Churchill for alcoholism during World War II? Richard Wagner’s operas could be canceled for virulent anti-Semitism of the composer. While Wagner’s views are reprehensible, his music is some of the most beautiful to be heard.
Psychologists have pointed to much of the behavior prompting cancelation as due to alienation, minimalization and loneliness. I think we all would benefit from addressing these issues rather than throwing people out of our lives.
GREG MARTIN, SMYRNA
Reader encourages everyone to get covid vaccine
I am 100 percent in favor of private companies using vaccine passports in order to encourage people to help our lives return to normal by getting the vaccine for covid.
To the people who are wary of getting the vaccine, here are two exercises for you. 1) Tomorrow, read the labels of the products you eat and drink daily and check how many chemicals you put into your body every day before noon every single day. 2) Go to Google and find some articles about the percentages of people who get side effects and die from getting COVID-19 versus the people who get side effects and die from getting the vaccine.
Before covid, we saw the damage and watched the resurgence of diseases like measles when the anti-vaxxers started their campaigns with unproven information.
We all need to get through this together. That means getting the vaccinations.
DALE DUNCAN, ATLANTA
