Letters to the Editor: Just like other Americans, Asians can be sports stars and mass killers
To the editor: In recent issues of The Times, the newspaper has inadvertently introduced the broader community to the diverse (ethnically and socioeconomically) Asian American community. ("In Monterey Park and now Half Moon Bay, the pain of hearing it's 'one of our own,'" column, Jan. 24)
The shootings of Asians by Asians is on the ugly side of the ledger, and the triumphant possibilities in sports are on the plus side. The alleged shooters in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, and new Lakers forward Rui Hachimura and Olympic gold medal winner Nathan Chen, are all part of Asian Americana.
Add to this cornucopia of people my grandson, who is on one side sixth-generation Japanese American and on the other ethnically Chinese. There you have it.
We can buy guns and kill people. We can win Olympic gold medals. We can put a basketball through a hoop. We have "model minority" and forever foreigner ("where are you from?") stereotypes, as well as the unrelenting "tiger mom." There's another dimension, captured by Stanford University psychologist Helen Hsu's quote in Erika D. Smith's column: "There are people in our community who are really, really, really not doing well and we don't talk about them."
In other words, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans are just like everyone else.
Warren Furutani, Gardena
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To the editor: When I read about suspected Monterey Park gunman Huu Can Tran's recent visits to a police station in Hemet, I couldn't help but wonder if things would have ended differently if free mental health services had been available at this police station.
Then I go on to ask myself the same question with different killers and different venues. What if there had been free and accessible mental health centers in their schools, on the corner, next to their work, in stores or at the library?
What if?
But there wasn't. Because money. Because stigma. Because a growing public anathema due to the frequency of these horrific displays of societal fracture.
It needs to change. We need to heal.
Cathryn Roos, Prescott, Ariz.
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To the editor: Both The Times' editorial board and Gov. Gavin Newsom say the same thing — that these mass killers all have one thing in common, and that's possession of guns.
They have more than that in common. These shooters are all men.
Why is this defining aspect repeatedly ignored in coverage and legislation of these terrible tragedies? Where is any discussion or resolve to address this fact? No one talks about it other than to report that these men were angry, isolated and then just snapped.
If abortion is considered murder by many, and new restrictive laws to access it are in place in many states, why can't men who seek and collect weapons be forced to abide by more stringent rules when acquiring guns?
Mary Fischer, Los Angeles
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
