We should treat guns like an addiction

Our gun problem really is like addiction

In response to “Stop. Listen. What do you hear in the gunfire?” (Oct. 5 Opinion):

Keith Larson’s piece brilliantly expresses the serious substance of the horrific mass killing in Las Vegas.

He uses phrases from Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-step program to compare our dilemma to, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.” Unmanageable indeed.

Thank you, Mr. Larson, for your incredible insight into our present society, and your skill to communicate so empathetically.

Lucile White Jackson, Charlotte

Abortion protesters are harassing women

I’ve been to Latrobe Drive on Saturday when the anti-abortion protesters mount a vigorous attack. I’ve seen them yell hateful words at the people driving to the clinic, trying to shame them. I heard the loudspeakers turned up way too high, blasting rhetoric that the women are going to hell. I’ve seen them stop cars and try to entice unsuspecting pregnant women into their RV where their intent is to pressure them to stop the abortion process. This isn’t free speech, this is harassment, pure and simple. The anti-abortionists claim moral issues. If you’re having an affair and I feel it’s morally wrong, do my friends and I have the right to parade in front of your house, shouting that “God hates sinners?”

City Council and CMPD need to grow a backbone and stop this obvious harassment, which they’ve allowed the anti-abortionists to mask as free speech.

Linda Lawyer, Charlotte

Don’t ‘conservatives’ want to save Earth?

Most people at one time were sure that the earth was flat. Scientific methods gradually led to an alternative theory that the earth was round, and this concept was confirmed when Ferdinand Magellan sailed around our world in 1521. Most people now consider it obvious that the earth is round.

Most people will soon consider it just as obvious that it is better to get our energy from the sun and the wind rather than today’s dominant energy sources which involve tearing the tops off of mountains, burying toxic waste beneath the earth’s surface, and releasing poisons into our precious atmosphere.

You can’t call yourself a “true conservative” if you support energy policies that harm the Earth and its inhabitants. Think about it.

Kevin McDonald, Concord

Would Vi Lyles be a rubber stamp?

No doubt Vi Lyles is a viable candidate for mayor. However, my great fear is given her long work experience on city staff, she would be a rubber stamp for city staff supported projects.

After the disastrous term of Jennifer Roberts, we need a fresh start with market tested approaches to solving our myriad of problems from transportation to affordable housing to race relations. We need to repair our damaged relationship with Raleigh.

Most importantly, we need everyone to go to the polls and express their voice in our government.

Kenneth R. Brown,

Charlotte

Charlotte needs more police officers

In response to “Witness says love led her to take part in gang killings” (Oct. 6):

It should send chills to residents of Mecklenburg County that the Londons were targeted by this criminal gang.

As the nation, and Charlotte, tackle poverty and affordable housing, which I think is great, we need to include several hundred more police officers just to tread water here in Charlotte. We are trending in crime toward a “ little Chicago.”

Randall Lemly, Charlotte

Will tax reform lead to budget cuts?

It seems that the Republicans are once again running into trouble with major legislation. This time, with the tax cut, er, “tax reform.” The major roadblock seems to be that the plan as currently set up would blow a hole the size of Kansas in the budget, ballooning the deficit. We see here why they were so desperate to pass health care “reform” first: Each one of their proposals would have slashed close to a trillion dollars from Medicaid, dollars that then would not need to be folded into the tax overhaul.

My guess is that once they pass this massive gift to the one percent, and the deficit rises, they will once again set their hair on fire, and claim that the only way to rectify matters is to, you guessed it, slash programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

Mary Cunningham,