October 2, 2024
Dear editor;
Hi Len, Judy here. I just read your Reader’s Voice article in The Voice October 3, responding to my Reader’s Voice September 19. My submission was written with words straight from my grandson’s heart wanting solutions to end gun violence in school. I’m proud of him speaking up about such a controversial issue.
Although you and I have different views about who or what is the cause for gun violence, I bet that if you and I sat down at a table across from each other, seeing, hearing, talking with each other, we could come up with some ideas to get guns out of our schools. I dare say we agree about that.
We have to start on the same page though. ANTIFA means Anti-Fascists – against Fascism. Our WWII fathers fought against fascist dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini. BLM means Black Lives Matter, not suggesting that black lives matter more than white lives, but that black lives matter as much as any other human being.
I have not heard of any school shooters being described as ANTIFA or BLM. Typically they are young white males who are as tragic as the tragedy they create by having access to the kind of guns that obliterate their perceived enemies.
Blaming immigrants, ANTIFA, and BLM, that they are manifesting evil in our culture and getting away with it, seems a far stretch from discussing what steps are needed to address gun violence in schools that not just my grandson wants to end. As he says, it’s time to listen to kids like me and do something about guns.
So where do we start? Why shouldn’t we be accountable to all those kids who want the safety and security of which you and my grandson speak? When can you and I meet to get the ball rolling?
Judy Siedlecki, Oswego