Dear Editor:

Isn’t it just wonderful that retired General John Shalikashvili, former Joint Chief of Staff chair, no longer opposes allowing gays, lesbians and bisexuals to serve openly in the military (GLT Jan. 4 issue 993) (What about transgender folk?)

Anyway with the current death of ‘straight’ volunteers its time for the military authorities to encourage gay cannon fodder. I say let the foolish ‘queers’ among us go forth and enter the bloody fray. At least this will help out down on the human overpopulation of our planet.

Diego Donohue

Dear Editor:

I share this letter with you as I do with many other community members to encourage you to take a more serious approach to steps that you can take to curb the rampant violence taking place in our neighborhoods, cities and countries all around the world. Never in the history of mankind has violence been so commercialized. It is my opinion that we as a society must immediately stop supporting and promoting the sale of violent behavior. Our present day society through its casual acceptance of video violence is producing a generation that will destroy each other. If we don’t make some direct changes to turn our society and country toward the path of peace, horrible changes will be forced upon us if we like it or not.

We need to do more than just manage the problems of conflict and aggression after they get out of control instead we need to also take action at the root of the problem to prevent its very conception. This can be a difficult area to look at because almost everyone perceives and accepts social violence at a different degree.

Often times we as adults unintentionally teach our children to obtain their goals through conflict, intimidation and war. The outer conflict in our lives is the direct result of what’s on the inside. If our inner man is motivated by fear, greed and anger the outer man will produce the same. When we continually feed our inner man violence through television, movies and video games, the same will eventually manifest in our everyday lives. This is especially true with children and young adults. It is not surprising that we have street gangs, these confused kids are simply copying how many adults, businesses and nations resolve their issues of conflict, when they feel threatened and scared they attack who they “think” their enemy is.

Fortunately we can easily help turn the tide towards a society that functions with respect and compassion for all mankind. Remember the world consist of many nations that are simply made up of small communities just like yours and mine. Each of us through little family actions can collectively create a huge change in the direction that our neighborhood will take.

I would like to point out that any action we take towards violence behavior must “not” be taken through acts of violence or intimidation but instead with total admiration and kindness for all mankind. We are told in many books of wisdom that we are not to resist evil because when we do we then simply give it power and allow it to take control in our own lives. Evil and cruelty really have no power, instead it is always produced out of fear. And what is the opposite of fear, is it not love and respect for others. So let respect for others always direct your actions because our purpose in life is to look beyond ourselves.

Marty Jedlicki