Letters: 'Degeneration' of the families to blame for school shooting, not guns
Banning weapons won't stop killings, decline of family to blame
On May 18, 1927, in Bath, Mich., 44 people, including 38 children, lost their lives at the hands of Andrew Kehoe, a disgruntled school board member, who planted dynamite causing the carnage.
In the same vein, the Columbine High School perpetrators had set explosives that failed to go off. Their intent was to cause as much death and injury as possible.
More: What are we doing to kids? Generation has never known American without school mass shooting.
Four thousand to 6,000 pounds of a mixture of fertilizer and fuel oil caused the death of 168 people, 19 of them little children in a daycare center located in the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
There are four key elements to any emergency plan. They are: prevention, preparation, response, and recovery.
Notice what is first: prevention.
Why are children committing acts of lethal violence in the first place? What was used to create the carnage is not as important as the "why."
More: CeaseFire Columbus: When the Killings Stopped
Banning fertilizer, fuel oil, guns, etc. is not going to stop these terrible occurrences.
The means to cause death and destruction are too varied to attempt to control. This country needs to come to terms with the degeneration of the family.
A simple study of the parents of Ethan Crumbley demonstrates this vividly.
More: Theodore Decker: Father buys gun on Black Friday, son uses it in uniquely American tragedy
Anything short of tackling this issue is simply "window dressing" and an admission by those in authority that we cannot do anything about this.
Richard J. Caster, Westerville
More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch
Keeping kids out of trouble outweighs cost of soccer facility
The Dec. 6 article, "The Program Saved Us," was written about a wonderful soccer program that is saving kids from a life of crime.
The program needs an indoor soccer field for winter and needs money to buy one for $350,000. Sounds like a lot of money for the city council to spend, but considering it costs $185,303 to incarcerate one child, it would be money well-spent.
More: Columbus complex 'a hell' for trapped new American families. A soccer center could help.
Programs that keep children engaged and out of trouble go a long way toward reducing crime — not to mention saving money by keeping children out of prison.
Jean W. Hoitsma, Columbus
'Nonfunctional' bipartisan system doesn't represent all citizens
Scott Pullins' put-down of "leftists" in his Dec. 5 column, "Leftists need to stop whining about districts and do better," is typical of the status of our politics. Instead of arguing for the rights of all citizens, he argues for the concerns of his party capturing state offices.
More: Democrats, leftists need to stop whining about redistricting and get better candidates
We need to form new parties that reflect the concerns of all points of view.
The present two-party system is nonfunctional in both state and federal. We must overcome this enslavement of voting for Tweedledee and Tweedledum to save our Democracy.
Phil Schick, Columbus
Slower response times tied to lower morale, lack of support?
Whether it is intentional or subconscious, I suspect the slower police response time column in the Dec. 5 paper ("Is 911 becoming a joke in Columbus?") is directly related to the nationwide protests of this past year.
More: Opinion: Is 911 becoming a joke in Columbus? Slower police response time alarming
I suspect our police department is feeling unsupported and under appreciated by the general public. It is hard to do your job when you do not feel valued.
While I don't believe most officers are intentionally slower to respond to 911 calls, I suspect morale in general is at an all-time low.
Additionally, I imagine they are feeling anxiety about what could go wrong and how that could impact their futures — not just retirement and pensions but criminal charges. It is hard to do your job when you are feeling threatened from all sides.
Michelle Hughes, Columbus
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Keeping kids out of trouble outweighs cost of soccer facility
