Winston-Salem Journal LTE SU 01/06/13

Trading places

The writer of the Dec. 31 letter “Unsustainable” is quite agitated over “the fairness question,” regarding who should be responsible for paying down our national debt, which was caused by Republicans not paying for two wars and a major health-care initiative (in the eight years they held office after Bill Clinton left a huge surplus), not to mention corrupt bankers who, with all those nasty regulations obliterated by Republican rule, gambled with the world’s money and brought about this fiscal calamity.

In the writer’s view, however, our debt burden is largely the responsibility of the poor and the middle classes and they need to shoulder way more of the costs by having their “entitlements” cut.

In his words, “The real fairness question is, why should 47 percent pay no federal tax and the top 1 percent pay 40 percent of taxes?” The fact is that those in the lowest income level, average $18,400 per year in 2007, still pay around 4 percent of their income in federal taxes to fund the entitlements they receive.

However, I have an idea that should fix even the perception of gross unfairness. Let everyone in the top 1 percent trade places with those in the bottom 47 percent. I’m sure people who don’t make enough money to pay income taxes would be more than happy to become multimillionaires and the wealthy can have all the advantages that now accrue to the poor.

KATHLEEN CAMPBELL

Sugar Grove

Making proper changes

In light of the horrific tragedy that occurred in Newton, Conn., there are three things that come to my mind. They are a change in mental-health care, access to violent video games and a change in gun control, specifically assault weapons.

The Second Amendment was written during the time of the Revolutionary War. The British did not allow their subjects to arm themselves against the King. The framers of the Constitution wanted to be sure that the citizens of their new country had no such restrictions and were able to form a militia (army).

Those who are opposed to gun laws have suggested that we all arm ourselves with weapons, whether they are handguns or assault weapons. Ironically, that did little to help Adam Lanza's mother.

We need to bring back attention of the mentally ill by improving attitudes toward mental illness; to improve services for the mentally ill; and to work for the prevention of mental illness and promote mental health.

Every parent needs to be aware of the video games that their children are watching and playing. Most video games try to make killing and gore a fun and exciting violent time. These fantasy scenarios can fuel violence.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid this will not be the last act of violence we will see or hear about. Consequently is the right to purchase and carry assault weapons more important than that of a human life?

SALLY HARMAN

Pfafftown

Sum It Up

Are you confident that the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools board can find a good successor for Superintendent Don Martin?

Correspondent of the week: Looking back

Looking back at the past year I saw both bad and good things occurring.  The patina of our past seems to have reached a breaking point, eroding our senses to accept extreme cruelty to other human beings. We have gradually allowed our country to become worn down from so much violence and gutter language allowed on television, computer twittering, Facebook, etc. I long for the days when we could turn on the TV and see something that made us feel good instead of crime shows with many shootings and shocking brutality.

Our younger generation has learned to accept this to be the norm because they never had the privilege of enjoying better entertainment. I long for the days when we could watch Carol Burnett, Bob Hope or Tim Conway, who made us laugh instead of cringe.

My generation was far from perfect. We allowed many bad things, such as segregation, unclean air, no regulations on polluting, and lack of care for the elderly. We have made a lot of progress on all these things which is something to be thankful for. So I can see the progress we have made as well as the detriment that has occurred.

I pray that we will look back and feel shame for the bad things we have allowed and continue the good things.

NAOMI J. DAVIS

Winston Salem