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Take proper steps to protect yourself
This is in response to Mr. Palmeri’s April 25 letter, (“Raising white flag to avoid being shot,”) outside the cities in the hill towns and mountains, there are only two things that bang on your doors and make noise in the middle of the night: critters and thieves.
You should take your white flag, attach it to your antenna, open your hood and turn on your four-way flashers to let other drivers know you need help. Don’t make two mistakes.
Stay by your vehicle. Use your head, don’t be a teenager.
Terry Ottendorf
Duanesburg
Understand the ‘guns kill’ metaphor
In his letter to the editor of April 26, (“Mental health is the problem, not guns,”) Raymond Jacobs says “Guns do not kill people. People kill people.”
Mr. Jacobs, there is nothing wrong with the gray cells in our heads, as you imply. But we do know and understand the word metaphor.
The dictionary defines metaphor as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
The sun rises; a metaphor. The sun does not actually rise. It does not move. Rather, the Earth rotates.
Clocks tell time, a metaphor. Clocks to not talk. But using clocks, we can know the time.
And we know that guns do not kill by themselves, but guns are used to kill people. Using guns, killers end the lives of thousands of innocent people.
Like the other examples listed above, “guns kill” is a metaphor that we all understand. I hope this helps you understand why we say, “guns kill.”
Bruce Holden
Schenectady
Make effort to cut unnecessary stress
Many would say we are living in an age of high anxiety. Why is that? And how can we lower the pressure we feel?
One reason we are stressed is that we are still recovering from the covid pandemic. The health challenges we faced in the last couple years were unlike anything we had experienced in our lifetimes.
A second reason may be that we are inundated with more information, and more negative news, than any people in the history of the world.
Perhaps human beings were not meant to experience such stimulation. I worry we are being overwhelmed by the technology we have created.
What can we do about it?
First, I recommend that people limit their intake of negative news. We are what we think about. We must not incessantly worry about current events.
Next, we need to pursue more relaxing pastimes like yoga, meditation, reading, prayer, gardening and nature walks. We can also surround ourselves with encouraging friends.
We tend to have a more positive outlook when we help others.
Many people I know are doing something to help family, friends or their community on a regular basis. Others have jobs that directly help local people. When we serve others, we tend to be happier.
Unfortunately, bad things will continue to happen in the world. We should stay informed, but we should also take the time to care for ourselves.
Raymond LeBel
Charlton
Stefanik no friend of military, vets
Notice to all veterans and their families, Elise Stefanik, and all of her Republican cohorts in the House of Representatives, voted to cut VA funding in their budget.
Remember that when she claims her support of the military.
Michael McNally
Saratoga Springs
Hoping for justice in Schoharie trial
Lawyers for Nauman Hussain were again denied reinstatement of his no-jail-time plea deal.
Retired Supreme Court Judge George Bartlett should be ashamed of himself for offering such a deal.
Twenty people are dead because of Hussain’s actions.
May justice be served at the trial which began Monday.
Hopefully we will find out how his father is avoiding inclusion in all of this.
Leonard M. Van Buren
Quaker Street
Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Opinion, Saratoga Springs, Schenectady
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Interstate crash involving 72 vehicles leaves several people dead, many more injured.
We need to outlaw cars. Horrific mass killing by cars. Many injured by cars in one accident. We need to take the cars from all old people they are the cause of the accidents. We need to take cars from anyone who has a cell phone because they are the ones causing accidents.
When are we going to do something about the senseless car deaths.
We should treat cars like guns. No one needs a license to drive. No one needs to pass a driving test. No insurance required. Just get behind the wheel and off you go. What could go wrong!? /s
BRANDIES calm your rage I know the gun control discussion is too advanced for you to grasp tucker will be back soon
Would you make the same argument for guns, which are far less regulated than cars? Plus, recently, they kill as many or more people.
Mr Holden excellent letter even the biggest simpleton might be able to comprehend. Thank you
Dear Mr. Holden,
I have personally witnessed digital clocks programmed such that voice synthesis does indeed allow the clock, an inanimate object, to ‘tell’ the time with no human interaction.
Using your own examples we find that ‘metaphors’ are quite unrelated to fact, as is the liberal thought process. Allow me.
Metaphor – “The sun rises”. It does not.
Metaphor – “Clocks tell time”. They do not, with the exception noted above.
Metaphor – “Guns kill”. They do not.
Liberals unfailingly use the silly “Guns Kill” metaphor to instigate ‘knee-jerk’ reactions among their liberal brethren and sisteren so that they have something to ‘feel’ sad and helpless about and something to ‘protest’, regardless of the reality of any given situation.
Metaphor – “Those guns did it!” They did not. The person pulling the trigger, and only the person pulling the trigger is responsible.
My question, so often put forth by the more intelligent of the species – and yet never answered – is:
Why are critical thinking liberals, in every case, going out of their way to shift blame to anything except the real issue?
The real issue is the permissive society that liberals have pushed since the drug addled sunshine and free sex windowpane 60s (some of you are STILL tripping) has now succeeded in raising several generations of people with no discipline, no work ethic, no sense of conscious, no sense of right and wrong, no respect for others, no manners, no respect for human life combined with the sense that they can do whatever they want, to whoever they want, at any time they want because ‘everyone wins on this even playing field or we will give them 10 points!’. Oh the feelings! Oh the tolerance and inclusion!
Your attempted utopian society is an absolute failure, but that’s because GUNS! GUNS! It’s time to grow the hell up and realize a societal change is the only thing that will fix this and many other issues.
(golf claps)
IPR, People use guns as an efficient way to kill. The problem is a gun, like any other tool, can be misused. Some people are so frightened by right-wing scare tactics and feel so empowered by a gun that they shoot first and ask questions later. Some are mentally ill and alienated and/or in search of notoriety; they use guns to kill as many people as they can as quickly as possible. That is why guns need to be regulated. No one is calling for a ban on all firearms. Universal background checks, outlawing semi-automatic weapons (assault rifles) and high capacity magazines and a requirement that gun buyers receive instruction in gun use, storage, and safety seem reasonable to me.
The rest of your post is typical of a far-right person, not a conservative, using exaggeration and making up positions not taken by liberals and progressives to attack them.
In self “righteous” anger you state, “Your attempted utopian society is an absolute failure, but that’s because GUNS! GUNS! It’s time to grow the hell up and realize a societal change is the only thing that will fix this and many other issues.”
I don’t know what the first sentence means. Liberals don’t believe in a utopian society; but what does that have to do with “GUNS!GUNS!?”
What “societal change” are you suggesting? What issues would the “societal change” you propose fix?
(crickets)
That’s my bet. Some people feel better blowing off some steam and don’t care if they make sense or not. But, I would like to hear about the societal change IPR wants and how it would fix the issues that seem to so trouble him.
Hi Anthony,
Now now, give a person a chance to come in from the fields. My remarks were meant to be directed strictly at people like Whoever equating all gun owners with the lifelong dirtbag that murdered that young girl.
99.999% of the legal, registered gun owners do not behave in the manner suggested, yet liberals tend to blame all gun owners of being sick killers and then blame everything after that on the ‘gun’. Hence The Gun! The Gun!
Sure, the gun was used to kill people, but it did not do it of it’s own accord. I believe there is a societal problem where people seem to think it is fine and dandy to go off and massacre a bunch of innocent people for facebook or TV news media notoriety. I think liberal school systems where everything is equal and everybody wins and nobody can do wrong, media and especially social media have a great deal to do with this.
For what it’s worth, If I come off like a far righter, I apologize. I am decidedly not. I agree completely with your take on controlling guns. I have NO problem with that.
My issue is people blaming an inanimate object for the behavior of a human being, and then blaming the behavior of the human on MAGA (for example) or whatever, while failing to acknowledge or address the base problem, which is: WHY is the human using the gun to murder innocent people? There have been guns in the USA since the USA existed, but this problem is recent. Why? It is not the gun.
I will not bother elaborating beyond pointing out, once again, you are exaggerating and making untrue claims.
Wow, you described 45 to a T!
You know what else, Ignatius? These librials now support the sale of Barbie dolls with the facial features of Downs Syndrome. The nerve! Everyone knows Barbie is a blond, blue-eyed Christian with Aryan features.
Perhaps now, along with not drinking anymore Bud Light he’ll stop playing with his Barbie dolls.
Mr McNally it is difficult to deny the traitorous behavior of Election denying Stefanik. as she turned on this country she turns on our veterans who is next?
I remember when the rural areas and hill towns used to be filled with neighborly, small town folks who’d reach out a helping hand to those in need, no matter their circumstance or time of night. Now it’s filled with paranoid, anti-social, gun toters with a hair trigger for anyone approaching their front door, even if they inadvertently drove down your driveway. Do the world a favor, if you think like Terry, at least post a sign alerting folks that they’ll be shot if they ask for help so they can avoid an untimely end.
I think the shooter was charged with murder. But I doubt he’ll get the chair (nobody does in NYS), so he will spend his few remaining days in jail. Somehow that punishment rings hollow. The takeaway here is that unregulated gun ownership will continue to lead to more premature deaths.
NYS no longer has the death penalty; it was ruled unconstitutional in 2004.
Good! And thanks for the correction, Hooligans.
Re: Stefanik: Stefanik is literally in bed with the gun lobby. Her recent vote on the debt ceiling proposal by the Republicans jeopardizes the health and well being of the middle class working family’s, veterans, seniors and those on edge of survival.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Stefanik-s-husband-Keep-gun-industry-free-from-17203670.php
I grew up and lived in a ‘hill town’. I don’t recall too many paranoid gun owners ready to shoot people for knocking on their doors late at night, nor having to worry so much about doing so. Several times we had late night visitors who smashed into a deer on our road and asked to call someone (before the age of cell phones) for help. Evil-doers usually don’t announce their presence with a knock or pressing the doorbell.
From the “No one’s surprised they’re Republican” desk:
Three Rensselaer County officials with close ties to the ruling Republican Party were indicted last week on federal charges as part of an investigation into ballot fraud. Now, the current and former mayors of the city of Rensselaer are weighing in.
According to the U.S. Attorney, Richard Crist, James Gordon, and Leslie Wallace were arrested and charged Thursday with conspiring to violate the rights of county voters during the 2021 election cycle.
The alleged ballot scheme in Troy appears to have taken advantage of looser absentee ballot requirements that were in place during the pandemic.
Crist is the Director of Operations for Rensselaer County, Gordon is the Director of the Bureau for Central Services of the county, and Wallace works for the county executive.
more…
-WAMC