Editor:
Thinking about shame I have recently been thinking about the absence of shame in our society. It began while I watched people standing in line to vote in some Florida polling places and it returned when I heard the news about the most recent slaughter of school children. I heard shocked people saying they could not understand why someone would kill first-graders. Yet, the vast majority of people with mental problems do not kill and in other developed nations, mass killings of school children are very rare.
The number of gun-related deaths in schools is horrific but small when compared to the annual 30,000 deaths by guns in our country. What is shocking to me is the real insanity -- that we still make it so easy for killers to arm themselves. The pictures of those children in Newtown should cause national shame. The first to admit their shame would be the gun industry, the NRA, the cowardly members of Congress who support the NRA and those who send dues to the NRA to help its lobbying efforts, which ultimately make it easy for the mentally ill to get guns. Finally, all of us who voted for elected officials who support the NRA should feel shame if we have not contacted our representatives to notify them that we are withdrawing our support--and our vote--until sane gun control is enacted. Equally shameful was Florida's attempt at voter suppression. Aspiring voters in several urban areas that were likely to vote Democratic faced painful voter suppression barriers. Elderly people could not stand in the hot sun for several hours and parents had to leave to care for children. This un-American legislative action was enacted by Florida's governor and its Republican-controlled legislature. Florida became a national laughingstock again. This despicable attack on our democracy, which was premeditated and implemented by cutting back on early voting, then understaffing poll places for the remaining hours that polls were open, occurred at a time when we should be seeking ways to increase the percentage of voting Americans. I am yet to find local Republicans who voted for state legislators with the expectation that they would cheat to win. Florida's Republican voters who have not contacted their elected officials and clearly told them to fix this problem should be ashamed of themselves.
The number of gun-related deaths in schools is horrific but small when compared to the annual 30,000 deaths by guns in our country. What is shocking to me is the real insanity -- that we still make it so easy for killers to arm themselves. The pictures of those children in Newtown should cause national shame. The first to admit their shame would be the gun industry, the NRA, the cowardly members of Congress who support the NRA and those who send dues to the NRA to help its lobbying efforts, which ultimately make it easy for the mentally ill to get guns. Finally, all of us who voted for elected officials who support the NRA should feel shame if we have not contacted our representatives to notify them that we are withdrawing our support--and our vote--until sane gun control is enacted. Equally shameful was Florida's attempt at voter suppression. Aspiring voters in several urban areas that were likely to vote Democratic faced painful voter suppression barriers. Elderly people could not stand in the hot sun for several hours and parents had to leave to care for children. This un-American legislative action was enacted by Florida's governor and its Republican-controlled legislature. Florida became a national laughingstock again. This despicable attack on our democracy, which was premeditated and implemented by cutting back on early voting, then understaffing poll places for the remaining hours that polls were open, occurred at a time when we should be seeking ways to increase the percentage of voting Americans. I am yet to find local Republicans who voted for state legislators with the expectation that they would cheat to win. Florida's Republican voters who have not contacted their elected officials and clearly told them to fix this problem should be ashamed of themselves.
James Upchurch
Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - www.newssun.com/ltr-122612-upchurch