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Monday's letters: Candidates should address nuclear threat

 
Published Dec. 18, 2015

Hard-line policy, hardball debate | Dec. 16

Debate sidesteps nuclear threats

Watching the Republican debate last week and reading the front-page article in the Times, I was struck by the lack of conversation about the greatest threats to American security: nuclear war and climate change. Yes, the fight against terrorism and the elimination of ISIS are urgent and critical to U.S. security, but we cannot afford to have our leaders and possible presidential nominees ignore or not understand the far greater dangers posed by the existence of over 15,000 nuclear weapons, many on hair-trigger alert for immediate launch.

Scientific studies show that even a limited nuclear war would disrupt the climate, devastate world agriculture, create enormous conflict and put 2 billion people at risk of starvation. Not to mention the hundreds of million killed in the initial blasts. Nuclear weapons are not a deterrent to war, but a risk multiplier to our security and very survival if they are ever used, whether by accident, terrorism or declared war. We need to have this serious conversation and be assured that our leaders, who have promised to keep us safe, understand this.

Lynn Ringenberg, Tampa

45,942 days lost | Dec. 6

Look inside the classroom

It has been interesting reading editorials and opinions about suspension rates and the sea of accompanying data. State and county administrators, legislators, pundits and others decry the current situation and opine that there must be a better way to manage students at schools.

Now for the cold, hard truth: Not one of those folks has been in the trenches (not any time recently, for the state and county administrators). They and the public have absolutely no idea what goes on in our schools today. And the only way they can make actual informed opinions is to get in the trenches. And that doesn't mean for a period, or even for a day. It means to work as a substitute teacher for a week, or shadow a teacher for a week.

Only then can you tell us how to deal with students that refuse, day after day, to do any work at all. How to deal with students who are absent more often than they are present. How to deal with students who show blatant disrespect to teachers on a daily basis and refuse to respect the county's rules.

I'll bet you thought we had mechanisms in place to deal with these behaviors. You would be wrong. School administrators are overworked and understaffed and barely have time to deal with fights, monitor lunches, and handle mountains of paperwork.

We are left to be in loco parentis, because far too many parents have ceded their responsibilities for child-rearing to us.

You may think you have all the answers, but you are discovering you don't even have any idea what the questions are.

Scott Hopkins, Brandon

Civil War monuments

Where will it end?

New Orleans has announced that it will be taking down four Civil War monuments. These are part of our history.

I seem to remember the outrage from people when the Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed ancient temples and statues that don't fit with their current beliefs. Where is the difference?

Maybe we should keep these monuments and remember the lessons from the past. George Washington could be called a terrorist according to current standards. Where do we stop?

Jeff Bigham, St. Petersburg