Private sector wouldn’t tolerate antics pulled by Meck County

Let’s see… Revaluation is messed up big-time, displaying huge incompetence. Millions of dollars in errors; millions to fix it – huge community impact.

The person in charge moves to another department for a pay cut, but keeps his job. Upper levels are unscathed; the county manger even expects a pay raise.

The Mecklenburg County board is unconcerned about requiring consequences because they work for the manager, apparently, rather than the other way around.

Try these tactics in the private sector and you’ll be looking at unemployment.

Bob Garner

Charlotte

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In response to “Obama: Act now to limit guns” (Dec. 20):

NRA must stop protecting gun makers, start protecting people

It doesn’t get said often enough that the primary motivation of the NRA, and of elected officials who do its bidding, is protecting the highly-profitable gun manufacturing industry.

For the sake of public safety and law enforcement, there are scores of highly-destructive weapons that private citizens cannot legally possess.

Not to include assault rifles and high-capacity clips on the prohibited list would be insane.

Elected officials who assert that further restrictions on gun sales would be useless are being irresponsible and dishonest.

Pat McCoy

Charlotte

Make it easier for families to report, monitor mental illness

Efforts to curb massacres such as the one in Newtown, be it limiting sales of assault weapons or drives to buy back weapons, are a good start. But given the similarity of recent cases, it seems time would be better spent establishing the incidence of disturbed mental health cases among family members.

Had there been a program in place to either monitor or expose potential cases, none of these shootings would have taken place. This is the kind of safety that begins at home.

Fernando Leiva

Harrisburg

Problem isn’t mental health;

it’s the proliferation of guns

Yes, mental health issues should be looked at and focused on in light of the Newtown killings, but gun deaths are an epidemic in the U.S.

The 30,000 deaths each year are not all caused by mental illness! There are gang wars, robberies, domestic violence, and premeditated murders occurring every day, by fairly – if not perfectly – sane people.

Where is one of the safest cities in the U.S.? New York City, with its stricter gun control laws.

And please stop using that tired phrase that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” I’d rather face an angry person with a baseball bat than face a gun any day.

Diana Travis

Charlotte

In response to “Treat guns like cars, regulate every aspect of ownership” (Dec. 19 Forum):

Gun control won’t fix society’s ills; I blame poor parenting

I don’t support guns in schools, but as for some of the other comments advocating gun control I will say this: Your solution is like taking oxycodone for dental pain instead of treating the underlying problem.

It’s easier to attack gun ownership than to try to fix the problems with our society that result in creating these animals. So frankly, people like me are tired of people trying to mask the pain instead of dealing with the cause.

I regularly see the results of what passes for “parenting” today with the lack of a moral values shown by many young people – stealing isn’t stealing unless you get caught.

Kenneth M. Kyzer

Charlotte

In response to “N.C. delegation: Fix violence, not gun laws” (Dec. 20):

Wayward drones, unjust wars add to U.S. culture of violence

I am happy to see that the N.C. GOP congressional delegation feels so strongly about our national “culture of violence” as a cause of the Newtown tragedy.

A good place to start changing this culture would be by massive cuts to our bloated military, which has been used with impunity for the last 50 years to impose violence in mostly unjust wars throughout the world.

For example, when we kill civilians and U.S. citizens with remote controlled drones, what kind of message does that send to our society?

Cliff Homesley

Mooresville

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In response to “The separation of unions and Americans,” (Dec. 17 Opinion):

There’s a reason parents stood up for striking Chicago teachers

While chastising Chicago teachers for their recent strike, the editorial failed to note that Chicago parents turned out in large numbers to support those teachers.

Parents did so because they understood that the issues the teachers raised – which covered not only pay and benefits but also small classes, better school libraries, social services for students and an end to the debilitating obsession with high-stakes standardized testing – would improve their children’s schools.

Criticizing teachers who stand up for decent working conditions only deepens the lack of trust and respect that is keeping our schools – and our country – from moving forward.

Pamela Grundy

Charlotte