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September 2012
Letters Send letters to oped@voices.org Dear Voices, July 14 marked the 100th birthday of Woody Guthrie…by all accounts a ragtag scuffler, wanderer, poet, a troubadour for working people if there ever was one. Guthrie was a visionary who, during his travels through troubled mid-20th century America, directly witnessed and experienced the social, economic, and racial injustices of the times. Woody’s genius was in his intuitive understanding that he could make a dent in turning things around by illuminating the common man’s experience through word, song, and performance, “hard-hitting songs for hard-hit people,” as he
called them. And so he gifted us with a rich legacy of song ranging from grand themes such as “This Land is Your Land” and “Roll On Columbia” to disquieting story songs such as “The Dying Miner,” “Deportee, and “1913 Massacre.” Woody Guthrie’s legacy will be celebrated locally on the Penn State campus with the Woody@100 Conference and Concerts, September 7-9. Information as it develops can be accessed at this website: http://www.altoona.psu.edu/guthriecentennial/ Jerry Zolten Chairperson, Woody@100 at Penn State
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Violence, pg. 35
two weeks. As shootings are becoming more frequent and more deadly, I don't want to see the next generation grow up with the same attitude that this generation holds. The only way for that to happen – for the next generation to see these shootings as tragedies and not just another news story – is for guns to be less accessible. Mass murders should not be committed through completely legal methods of obtaining weapons. The FBI predicts that nearly 70% of all murders committed each year are executed with legally purchased firearms. Gun control has been debated for years, tragedy after tragedy, with really no change in the policy. We need to understand that those victims could have been people we know.
And if nothing is changed, it could reach the point where those victims are people we know. We can set up anonymous tip lines, we can improve our mental health care, but in the end, the only thing that will really, truly prevent these situations is making guns less accessible. As long as anyone can pass a background check and purchase assault weapons, we will continue to see these kinds of stories. And the more stories we see, the more accepting of it we will become. I don't want to reach a point where shootings aren't even making the news anymore. These things don't have to happen, but more importantly they don't have to be viewed as something that is just always going to exist. Let's change this policy, because personally, I don't know how many more of these stories I can handle hearing about.