Why has it become so difficult for this county to solve its problems? Solutions immediately move to the extremes when the best ones are usually in the middle somewhere. Our two political parties quickly move to their corners and circle the wagons, both believing they and only they have all the right answers. In the meantime, the problem continues.
The current issue of mass killings is no different. Shouldn’t our priority be to determine why these offenders (predominantly male) are compelled to undertake their actions, and to find ways to mitigate those reasons rather than spend time, energy and debate on eliminating the choice of their “weapon of the day”? Will any of us really feel better if we eliminate assault rifles and the next mass killing is by a rifle, shotgun, revolver, explosive device, vehicle, plane or drone? If the bad guys continue to go unidentified before the event and aren’t stopped, they will find a way to complete their action even if we eliminate some of their “weapons of the day.”
Barry McCabe
West Hartford
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan provided for a one-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC), making the credit available to all low-income families with children. It was responsible for reducing hunger and poverty among our nation’s children. This temporary expansion unfortunately lapsed on Dec. 31, 2021. Before the expansion, an estimated 27 million children under age 17 lived in families who did not qualify for the CTC because they did not have sufficient taxable income.
We know that young children are especially vulnerable to the damaging effects of hunger, even for short periods of time. All children benefited from CTC expansion, but especially children from nonwhite communities that have disproportionately higher rates of hunger. The CTC especially impacted rural families, where child poverty rates are the highest.
Providing the credit monthly, rather than in an annual lump sum, when families file their taxes, makes the CTC more effective in preventing hunger. Frequently, low-income households run short of grocery money on a cyclical basis — i.e., in the days before workers receive their paychecks. Those additional resources smoothed out the fluctuations in monthly incomes and made it possible for families to be more independent and less reliant on food banks and other charitable services, underscoring the dignity of providing food for themselves.
In 2019, the National Academies of Sciences found that the CTC expansion had a larger impact on reducing child poverty than any other policy or combination of policies studied. A permanent CTC expansion also offers a good return on investment. Every year, child poverty costs the economy between $800 billion and $1 trillion. We must work to make the expansion permanent and available to all our children.
Please go to the Bread for the World website, and click on the 2022 Domestic Offering of Letters to send letters to your federal representative and senators.
Paul Manganiello
Norwich
As a pastor, I’m disturbed by how white supremacy has spread among parts of the Christian community and by how little it’s been denounced in the rest of it. That’s why I urge Christians, and especially pastors, to denounce the great replacement theory and contrast it with the great commandment given to us by the one we profess to follow. The great replacement theory draws on the worst of America’s history, falsely implying that nonwhite people are threats. In contrast, the great commandment reminds us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. It was first taught with a parable in which the neighbor who showed such love was a member of a much-despised outsider group! That commandment points us to a vision of multiracial democracy where everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity and religion, is equally valued. It’s what we need to undergird our moral and civic values.
When Christians stay silent about the great replacement theory, we help accelerate its spread. We must repudiate its hierarchy of human value that views whites as the “true Americans,” and sees increasing racial, ethnic and religious diversity as a threat, by contrasting it with our core belief that every person is made in God’s image and possesses inherent dignity and equal worth. We must respond with the call we’ve received to love those who are deemed the “other” and the marginalized.
The best way to repudiate this dangerous theory is to embrace the alternative vision of a beloved community where all are equally valued. That can help us see our growing diversity not as a weakness but as our greatest strength.
Rev. Steve Gehlert
West Newbury
If the Sackler drug empire can be brought to heel, forced to pay $6 billion to settle claims that OxyContin was inappropriately advertised and sold with the assistance of pharmacies and medical professionals, resulting in thousands of deaths of teenagers, then why can’t the gun manufacturing empire?
What is the difference between opioids, which killed thousands of young people and destroyed families, and guns and bullets, which have killed over 1,000 children and torn apart their families in mass shootings since Sandy Hook? All with the seeming approval of legislators who have received many millions of dollars in political contributions from the gun industry’s lobbying arm, the NRA.
It’s not about the Second Amendment, it’s about money. It’s always about money.
F. Herbert Prem Jr.
Hanover