To the Editor:
A response is needed for Christen Giblen’s rambling column (Our fellow humans have suffered enough — demand reform, March 4).
Our country is actually a Democratic Republic, meaning that it is responsible to the voter. There is a Constitution and Bill of Rights that limit the power of government. That was done intentionally.
First, it protected us from England, France and Spain who wanted the natural riches America had. Second, it protected us from the forms of government that many of the original settlers had come from and found to be hard to live under. Third, it forces change to come slowly and more carefully thought out and those changes have limits that cannot be overridden easily. Fourth, it was supposed to allow us to live “free” from excess government.
The bill of rights was put there for very good reasons. The Second Amendment says clearly “shall not be infringed.” That was put there because the British tried to disarm the general population so they would have no way to resist England, and because it was known even then that any population that is disarmed ends up becoming a dictatorship.
If you want to change that wording, then that puts your First Amendment at risk too. Do you really want someone telling you what you cannot write or speak?
I have never seen a gun fire itself, it takes a human to pull that trigger.
In America today we have a problem with symptoms. We would rather treat symptoms than causes — in medicine, government, schools, legal system.
Let’s try a new way — addressing the actual causes. Fathers and mothers who are not doing their jobs, broken homes and families, no religious or faith background, an educational system that is poorly run.
Then, there is the media. “If it bleeds, it leads” and that brings in money. The media must change the way this subject reported and do it unbiased.
It must be remembered that thousands of lives have been spent in protecting and supporting our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Respect must be given for all those lives, they have given you a standard of living enjoyed by no other country.
Tom Zulch
Weston
