TRAGEDY: Clear call to Americans

Since the horrific events of Friday, Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn., we have seen thousands of Americans step up to aid the victims’ families as well as various charitable organizations. The aid has been in many forms and has reached out to the whole town. Glaringly missing from this aid is any from our national elected officials. So I challenge the members of The Congress in Washington, D.C., to immediately each contribute $500 of their personal funds to a Burial Fund. This would come to approximately $260,000…this amount should cover the funeral expenses of the victims.

Next: Corporate America and Academic America — you need to step up and fund educational opportunities for the siblings of the victims and the children of the staff killed. You also need to set up smaller funds for all the children of Sandy Hook Elementary. If the whole nation is trying to ease the pain for Newtown, you the “business and educational leaders” of our nation need to do the same. At a time when you have often been painted in an unfavorable way now is your time to show America your better side.

Finally, as a nation we need to revisit our gun control and mental health policies; the ones currently in place are NOT WORKING. The ACLU has to join in our efforts to protect the greater number of people even if some suffer less “freedom.”

I am a 75-year-old woman who owns guns, hunts both big game and birds and supports the NRA, but no one needs an assault-type rifle to hunt nor do we need handguns with extended magazines. We certainly have a constitutional right to own guns and that is without question. We need to think about exactly what types of guns.

Just as pressing a problem is our totally inadequate mental health system. Our streets and shelters are filled with people who suffer from major mental health issues. We have parents, siblings and friends who know people with mental problems but there is nothing they can do if that person is over 18 and doesn’t want help. Most Americans cannot afford to pay for the extensive treatment either. This situation has reached “critical mass” in America and we need to find a way to protect the general public and help those suffering from the mental problems.

JOY P. WHEELER

Rathdrum