Your Views for October 4

Now’s the time

I’m writing in response to the Philadelphia Daily News editorial by Stu Bykofsky, published Tuesday, Oct. 3, in the Tribune-Herald.

What an awful and insensitive piece to publish in response to this massive tragedy, especially close to the hearts of Hawaii’s residents. Stu admits to being a gun owner who is left wondering what to say.

What do we say now? We denounce terrorism in every color and creed it spawns from. We celebrate the sacrifice of heroes and mourn the loss of loved ones. We start a very frank dialogue regarding the number of gun deaths in America. There is no hesitation, no wondering in this response.

What do we do now, Stu? What do you, myself and other gun owners say now? We take a humbling step back, revisit the true intentions of a misunderstood Second Amendment, and admit maybe some lives could be saved by making it harder to buy a gun than, say, an imported box of German chocolate Kinder Eggs.

Stu says the fear of retaliation toward the Second Amendment sickens him even more than the lives lost. He says he’ll “wait for the next horror” and wonder about his response next time.

Next time?! How many lives need to be lost before people like Stu stop wondering and start talking? I bet the 59 people who died wished they had the privilege of such a luxury to sit and wonder.

Kendra Tidwell

Pahoa

‘Let it be’

Belief is something everyone old enough develops. There are as many interpretations of belief as there are people who have them.

Freedom is being allowed to have your beliefs and for others to have theirs, too. History and the present have perpetual missionaries trying to convert someone’s beliefs, and history shows how unjust this often turns out.

Think: Indians, Hawaiians, Vietnamese — and I am sure others that I do not know of.

If you are strong in your belief, why do you have to convince others?

Back to freedom. Let it be.

John Begg

Pahoa