Residents discuss mass killings and bills surrounding injured workers and abortion in this week’s letters to the editor.
Why are there mass killings?
In 1979, American missile crews warned that a massive nuclear strike from the Soviet Union was on its way. We were considering a launch of our own missiles as an act of retaliation. Actually, a training tape that simulated all the signals of a massive Soviet first strike had mistakenly been loaded into a computer.
In 1995, Russian radars detected a rocket launch that looked like those of a U.S. Trident nuclear missile. In reality, it was a warning system error.
In 1983, a Russian control center warned of a surprise nuclear attack. It was in fact, scattered high-altitude clouds that reflected sunlight. Despite urging to launch a counter- nuclear attack, they waited for confirmation. It was a false alarm. A nuclear exchange would have resulted in Mutually Assured Destruction, aptly called M.A.D. The only defense that is more than pretense is to act in the sense that there is no defense.
On a smaller scale, the Las Vegas massacre shows once again that a person or country determined to kill people and accept their own death as a result cannot be stopped. Recall the shooting of John Kennedy, also from a building, and of Ronald Reagan up close.
A rifle can be modified to act as an automatic machine gun. It can stop an ISIS suicide bomber in a market or a bus filled with children before he presses the button and 10 take his place.
Ban all guns, and illegal guns used by a determined person will still be used. Must we ban kitchen knives to prevent assassins from stabbing people? With no guns or knives, the weapons of choice might become baseball bats, and banning them, resorting to fists. The killers are not just illegal but legal immigrants, not only the mentally ill but “sane” native- born citizens with no prior record of criminal behavior whom authorities would have had no reason to suspect.
By then it is too late. The perpetrators’ motives are many but the results are the same. Is this hostility and aggression inborn in the human race? People and nations must learn to practice compassion and empathy rather than envy, anger and a need for domination. We must do more than talk about behaviors but rather practice positive attitudes ourselves.
Without this, the ultimate answer will be that there is no ultimate answer.
Mel Flitter
Somerton
We must ignore Fast Eddie
Ed Rendell stated that he believes he may be at fault for the placement of the Rizzo statue.
I blame Rendell for bringing DROP to Philadelphia. I also blame him, when he was governor, for the underfunding of the state’s pension plans that plagues us today.
Why does anyone listen to Rendell?
Mayer Krain
Modena Park
Explaining House Bill 18
There’s been a lot of misinformation about state House Bill 18 and I’d like to set the record straight.
This measure has nothing to do with healing injured workers. It has everything to do with giving insurance companies control of the medical process at the expense of injured workers. Doctors would no longer have the prevailing say in treating the unique needs of individuals who suffered workplace injuries.
While Rep. Ryan Mackenzie claims this bill will help combat Pennsylvania’s opioid epidemic, nothing could be further from the truth. A simple reading of the bill text exposes that it looks to take control of medical decisions from doctors and give it to insurance companies.
Using a tragic situation as cover for a giveaway to the insurance industry is cynical at best and reprehensible at worst.
The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO remains steadfast in its opposition to House Bill 18.
Patrick J. Eiding
President, Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO
Women support ban
As a woman, I am grateful to the Pennsylvania House for considering Senate Bill 3, which would ban the brutal practice of dismemberment abortion, in which a baby is torn limb by limb from a mother’s womb. A statewide poll found that a majority of Pennsylvanians, including a majority of women, support such a ban.
Women are speaking for themselves, and most are saying they want brutal dismemberment abortions to end in PA.
Maria Gallagher
PA Pro-Life Federation
