President Obama gave a remarkably moving speech at the Tucson memorial service. He showed his keen intelligence as well as his compassion for the fallen and those affected by the terrible loss. His profound words gave comfort to many, and his speech was highly praised by those on both sides of the political aisle.

The U.S. is currently divided, with economic troubles, job loss, general uncertainty about the future of the nation, gun and violence issues, and vitriolic political metaphors. There is a need for the political parties to truly work together for the common good, and a stronger …

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Re: “Shooting victim asks: ‘How many is enough?’” (TNT, 1-23).

I do feel sympathetic toward Virginia Tech shooting victim Colin Goddard, but at the same time my thinking is completely opposite from his. He claims to have seem so many bodies piled up at his classroom door that the police could not open it. I feel that even if one of those people in the room had been armed, he or she might have been able not only to have saved their own life but perhaps many of the others’ lives as well.

We are all attuned to what has …

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Re: “Many faiths pay tribute to King” (TNT, 1-17).

Thank you for the inspiring article on the celebration of peace for MLK Day.

The recent debate on violence in America has actually been about collective vs. individual responsibility.

I used to think that Dr. King was assassinated because we were all responsible for the conscience of America: each word we speak creates ripples of positive or negative power to affect our collective humanity. Each of us must change the violent fearful thinking that forms the social matrix whence individual acts arise, not as random isolated events, but expressions of …

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Re: “Delusions – not politics- drove Arizona gunman” (Charles Krauthammer column and cartoon, 1-13).

While i agree the shooting is not an indictment of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ record, it is an indictment of Arizona’s same-day gun permit. I am all for the right to bear arms, but think it’s ridiculous that one can get a semiautomatic weapon without a reasonable background check and waiting period.

Yes, the perpetrator is a nut job. So is Sarah Palin if she thinks those of us familiar with guns believe the cross-hairs on her website were surveyor’s marks.

Palin and Glenn Beck’s hate talk …

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Please, media, stop the insanity! Quit hiding behind the “freedom of speech” curtain while spewing a litany of faux pundits’ commentaries regarding the sanity or rationale of one nut job. The media have essentially facilitated his rise from obscurity to the level of infamy. Every article, every picture posted feeds his empty, soulless ego.

Several years ago I was involved with a safety study group trying to eliminate employee accidents. After all was said and done, it boils down to the fact that, regardless of the rules, regulations and processes implemented to prevent accidents, society, will never cross the threshold …

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The conservative commentators in general and Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter in particular continue to baffle me. Somehow they’re making Palin out to be the victim in the whole Tucson shooting brouhaha.

Let’s be clear on something: No one is of the mind that Palin made that kid in Tucson take a gun to kill and wound a score of innocent people.

However, the fact of the matter is, the type of rhetoric that Palin, Michelle Bachmann and others spew appeals to a certain type of individual who will act on his impulses because they feel their ideas …

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Every year or so someone deranged “falls through the cracks,” obtains a gun and then proceeds to shoot a number of people.

There were the two who stole an openly displayed gun from a gun shop here in Tacoma and then shot a number of people at random in the D.C. area. Their behavior “fell through the cracks.”

A strangely behaving student at Virginia Tech “fell through the cracks,” got a gun and killed fellow students.

Loner Columbine students also “fell through the cracks” and shot several at their school.

At Fort Hood, a weirdly behaving psychiatrist “fell …

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Not one of the two articles and three letters published on your opinion page today (1-12) could bring themselves, without qualification, to put the shooting in Arizona in meaningful perspective. Each stated that the shooter was crazy and not motivated by political rhetoric but …. (a long list of perceived irresponsible political tactics of the opposition).

The Founders understood human nature. Our Constitution effectively considers the major flaws that all humans must learn to manage if we are to live humanely together. This is essential for meaningful interaction. All the checks and balances that guide the process of change are …

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